Glacier tops Flathead 5-1 in crosstown

Glacier sophomore Liam Ells scored two goals to lead the Wolfpack to a 5-1 win over the Flathead Braves as Legends Stadium was transformed into the Wolf Den Thursday night for a boys soccer crosstown rivalry game.

Glacier junior forward Bridger Dalla Betta got the party started early with less than 10 minutes coming off the clock when he went on the attack and juked the Flathead goalie Kutter Ward to fire home the goal.

Ells followed that up with the game's second goal at the 32-minute mark in the first half when Ward deflected his kick and the ball trickled into the Braves’ net.

From there both teams picked up the pressure defensively, as nearly 15 minutes of game time passed before any more scoring occured. That changed when Flathead’s Landen Saraceno scored a goal to put the Braves on the board, making it a one-score game a few minutes later.

The Wolfpack then pushed things to 3-1 when goalie Dylan Holly launched the ball downfield, and after a scramble left the Wolfpack in possession.

Some nifty passing set up a Harrison Sanders score that would end up being the final goal of the first half. Sanders, a senior, also had two assists on the day.

“There was a little bit of trash talk going on before the game, both teams were chirping a little bit, but I’m glad we got the result that we did and we definitely shut up the trash talk,” Sanders said.

Ells got the second half action started when he notched his second goal of the day at 44 minutes to stretch the lead to 4-1 Wolfpack. Ells usually does his work on the defensive side of the ball so the offensive outburst was a nice surprise for him.

“I’ve been a defender for a while so it was nice to go up top and score some goals,” he said.

Physicality increased as the half went on with players from each team hitting the Legends Stadium turf on multiple occasions. That did not seem to phase the Wolfpack as junior forward Hunter Lisowski found the back of the net for the games final score in the 51st minute, giving Glacier a four-goal advantage.

As time ticked down, the Wolfpack kept threatening but Flathead's goalkeeper Ward strung together an impressive stretch of stops highlighted by a leaping save and a sequence that featured multiple shots from a swarm of Glacier players who were surrounding the Braves goalkeeper with the play resulting in the ball going out of bounds.

Flathead’s coach Alejandro Calderon said his team has things to work on after the defeat but added, “It’s always fun to watch a crosstown game, lots of emotions, the boys put their hearts out there.”

Flathead 1 0 — 1

Glacier 3 2 — 5

G - Bridger Dalla Betta (Harrison Sanders) 4:00

G - Liam Ells (Hunter Lisowski) 8:00

FH - Landon Saraceno 22:00

G - Harrison Sanders (AJ Zlogar) 28:00

G - Ells (Sanders) 44:00

G - Lisowski (Sanders) 51:00

Shots — G 16, FH 6; Corner kicks – G 6, FH 3; Fouls – G 8, FH 1; Goalie saves — G 6 (Dylan Holly), FH 9 (Kutter Ward).