Skyview sends Sandpoint home with second place

MERIDIAN, Idaho – Sandpoint’s championship run in boys soccer is more than a school tradition. Coach Randy Thoreson sees it as a family tradition.

That would explain the Bulldogs’ somber mood Saturday after their 2-0 loss to Skyview of Nampa in the State 4A title game at Boise Capital Soccer Complex.

“We don’t like taking second place,” Thoreson said. “We set the bar high, and these kids work incredibly hard.”

Thoreson said that hard work just didn’t pay off against the Hawks (16-1-3), who joined Kuna on the short list of teams that have denied Sandpoint what has become something of a birthright.

Since the Idaho High School Activities Association began sanctioning soccer in 2000, the only schools to have their names inscribed on the honor list are Sandpoint, Kuna and Skyview. Both times Sandpoint went home without the top trophy, the Bulldogs toted home – quite begrudgingly – the second-place hardware.

“If you asked them, to a man, they’d rather leave the second-place trophy here,” Thoreson said.

Sandpoint finished the season at 18-2-2, and the Bulldogs’ drive to succeed – and the frustration of no offensive success against Skyview – erupted into some petulant outbursts in the first half.

“It might have gotten them a little untracked,” Thoreson admitted of some players’ jawing at the referee and an opposing player when he was down with an injury.

Sandpoint’s composure began to erode when Skyview junior forward Jose Ballesteros scored the only goal the Hawks would need in the 22nd minute.

Skyview, which kept the ball in Sandpoint’s end for a good chunk of the first half, scored its second goal on a shot from Jesus Lopez early in the second half. Ballesteros assisted on the second goal, while Lopez set up Ballesteros during the first score for the District III champs.

“They scored a nice goal early,” Thoreson said. “We’ve been down goals before, so I knew they weren’t going to quit, that’s for sure.”

The Bulldogs regrouped after the intermission and got some chances against the stingy Hawks.

But nothing found the back of the net for Sandpoint.

“We had a ton of chances in the second half but couldn’t buy one,” Thoreson said.

Sandpoint also had a chance to change the complexion of the game in the first half when sophomore Alex Crossingham launched a chip shot over the goal from about 6 feet away.

“If we put that ball in, it’s a different game,” Thoreson said.

The ninth-year coach has been at the helm for all of Sandpoint’s four state crowns. He said the pain from both losses (this year and 2003 to Kuna) is equal because of the nature of the Bulldogs’ demanding program.

“Every year, you develop a family of players, and you spend more time with them than their parents do for three months,” Thoreson said. “And you feel bad for them because you’ve been challenging and pushing them.

“They had a great season, but for all that they did, they’ll remember second place.”