Sting U-19 team out of regional

First, there were about 25. Then down to 20. Then 15, 10, and finally down to just one.

With his team and assistant coaches waiting around, then slowly, one by one filing out, head coach Dean Thompson found out, nearly an hour-and-a-half later, it wasn’t worth the wait.

Despite a hat-trick from co-captain Grant Lundberg and a spectacular late goal from forward Luke Miller that gave them a 4-3 win over the Missoula Strikers, the Coeur d’Alene Sting’s U-19 boys soccer team was eliminated from the Far West Regional Thursday, losing out on a wild-card third-place bid to Arizona’s state champion, F.C. Bayern Mesa on goal differential.

After losing Tuesday 3-2, the win Wednesday gave the Sting a minus-2 goal differential while Mesa finished their three-game set with at plus-1. That moved Mesa on to today’s quarterfinals and sent the Sting home.

But despite not getting out of the preliminary round, both coach and captain enjoyed the run.

“You need a little bit of luck in this tournament,” Thompson said. “And unfortunately, it didn’t really go our way and we really could have used it the first two days.

“Regardless, it’s been awesome. I’ve had an absolute blast, mostly just because of how much they’ve put into every game … it’s been awesome.”

“It’s been fun, they’re a great group of guys,” said Lundberg, a Lewis and Clark graduate who now plays for Gonzaga. “I’ve had the pleasure of being on this team and captaining this team and it’s been a delight.”

The Sting were forced to battle back from a nearly impossible situation, losing their goalie Dade Smith for the first two games just over 10 minutes into the first half of the first game to a questionable red card, then losing their sweeper Scott Campbell for part of the second and all of the third game after Campbell picked up his second yellow card Tuesday.

And still, the boys from Coeur d’Alene nearly pulled it out.

“With this team, you can tell, was a no-quit team,” Thompson said. “Even without Dade and without Scott and a man down, we were still going. We didn’t pack it back in and say, ‘Well, we can rest on our excuses if we lose.’ ”

The area’s other entry in the competition, the Sting’s U-14 boys team, were also eliminated, falling 2-0 to Nevada’s Neusport Arbelaez and finishing with just a point.

Advancing teams move on to today’s quarterfinals, with games still held at both Plantes Ferry Field in Spokane Valley and the Polo Fields in Airway Heights. Games start at 8 a.m., with the last games kicking off at 2 p.m.

For more information, log on to www.regionIV.com and click on the Regionals link.