Sandpoint’s victory brings ‘sweet revenge’

MERIDIAN, Idaho – The Sandpoint High boys soccer team came to the Treasure Valley expecting to play two “state championship” games.

The second one can’t be much more exciting than the first.

Sandpoint scored two goals in the final 5 minutes against Nampa Thursday afternoon at the Boise Capital Soccer Complex to avenge its only loss of the season.

Sandpoint won 4-2 to advance to a State 4A semifinal today against Pocatello.

A win would put the Bulldogs into Saturday’s final, where they expect to face Skyview of Nampa. Skyview knocked off Nampa in the District 3 final.

Sandpoint, which has won four of the past five state titles, improved to 17-1-2. Nampa beat the Bulldogs 2-1 last month.

“Sweet revenge,” freshman Spencer Swerin said.

And it was Swerin who provided the decisive blow in a fantastic second half full of scoring chances.

Swerin and Brandon Eddy took the ball deep into the Nampa zone with about 5 minutes left in the game and the score tied at 2.

Swerin passed to Eddy along the right side, and Eddy dished the ball right back to the freshman.

Swerin didn’t have a great angle, but he saw an opening between the goalkeeper and the near post, and he rippled the net.

“It was just the goalie and I,” Swerin said. “There was a small space.”

A minute later, Eddy scored on a similar shot to give the Bulldogs breathing room.

“The (Swerin) goal fired us up,” Eddy said.

So did the opponent. Nampa (16-3-1) represented a chance at redemption.

“We were fired up for this game (Wednesday),” Eddy said. “We were ready.”

Nampa, however, jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead as Sandpoint had some confusion on defense.

Frank Mondragon chipped the ball into the net out of a scrum in front of the net.

Sandpoint dominated the action for the rest of the first half. Nampa could boot the ball into Sandpoint territory, but it couldn’t put together scoring chances.

Meanwhile, the Bulldogs started to crank up the offense.

Eddy won the ball at midfield, dashed down the right sideline and ripped a centering pass toward senior Michael Brewer.

Brewer’s one-touch shot evened the score at 1-1.

“That sparked us up,” Eddy said.

The Bulldogs came right back with another goal.

Senior Chase Lowther headed a pass from sophomore Gunnar Paulsen into the net for a 2-1 halftime lead.

Coach Randy Thoreson warned his team at the half that Nampa would come out strongly in the second half, and he was right.

Sandpoint left Jose Loza all alone on the far post for a pass across the goal box. Loza cashed in to make it 2-all.

“We started the second half a little bit flat,” Thoreson said. “We kind of got caught on our heels.”

Nampa continued to pressure the Sandpoint goal, but senior keeper Seth Baker wouldn’t budge.

He made a diving, one-handed deflection of one shot that hit the left post and went out of bounds.

A few more Nampa shots were high or wide before Sandpoint regained control and advanced to the semis.

“We know nothing about (Pocatello), absolutely nothing,” Thoreson said.

“We’re going in cold. Hopefully they had as hard a game as we did.

“We spent some energy today.”