Vikings stand tall in regional final
The Coeur d’Alene High girls soccer team had a score to settle with Lake City in Wednesday’s 5A Region I championship match.
A 1-0 score, to be exact.
The top-seeded Vikings, who lost to the Timberwolves in the same match on a lone penalty kick last season, needed an overtime goal from senior midfielder Carmen Reyes to capture a 2-1 victory over LC in this year’s title game.
CdA coach Tarragh Carr said she told her team just before the overtime that it was time put up or shut up.
“I told them, ‘You have about 30 seconds to prove that you’re the better team, because right now they think they are,’ ” Carr said. “‘So if you truly want to play tomorrow and not have that sinking feeling in your gut that you had last year when you lost on this same field, you have 30 seconds to go pick it up.’
“And they did.”
With the win, CdA (14-4-1) advances to the state tournament Oct. 19-21 at the Boise Capital Soccer Complex, where it will meet Timberline (14-5), which fell 2-1 to defending state champion Eagle (14-1-1) in the District III championship.
Lake City (8-5-6) must travel to Lewiston for a 1 p.m. Saturday play-in match against District III fifth seed Boise (10-6-2), which advanced with a 2-1 loser-out victory over Mountain View.
The Vikings went up 1-0 in the 22nd minute when sophomore forward Sarah Bjorn finally controlled a corner from teammate Marissa Poorboy that had pinballed off at least two other players right in front of the goal. Bjorn, standing still, rolled it just to the right of a diving LC keeper Shannon Fraser, frenetic in the goalmouth on the play.
LC had a great chance to tie it up in the 38th minute when an errant pass back to CdA keeper Amanda Wemple got away at the top of the penalty box, but Timberwolves forward Catherine Cramer, standing right next to Wemple, was unable to get a shot off at the empty net.
The 1-0 score held until the 68th minute, when LC senior Melissa Bagan’s bending corner ended up on goal and slipped through a surprised Wemple’s hands to tie the match.
In the sudden-death OT, the Vikings poured on the pressure, taking it into the LC end and pounding shot after shot at a defense that, despite all its efforts, couldn’t clear the ball, which finally found its way to Reyes on the right point.
Reyes wasted no time, right-footing a rocket just inside the far post and easily past Fraser, who was shielded by a crowd of players from both teams
“I was lucky on that shot,” said Reyes, admitting she didn’t have a line of sight to the goal when she pulled the trigger. “I kicked it as hard as I could, because every one of our players kicked it and it deflected off a Lake City player and they kept deflecting it.
“So I was like, ‘Hit it hard, and maybe it will knock a Lake City player down and maybe go in.’ “
Timberwolves coach Matt Ruchti remained upbeat despite the obvious frustration of his team’s inability to clear at the crucial moment.
“We start overtime, it gets knocked down in the box and we give them five opportunities to score a goal and they finally make one of them,” Ruchti said. “That’s unfortunate, but that’s just the way it goes – Coeur d’Alene did a great job.
“Our season’s not done. We’re going to get on a bus and go down to Lewiston and figure things out from there.”
Boys soccer
Freshman defender Graham Lundgren scored his first goal of the season to help Moscow in a 3-0 victory over visiting Lakeland in a 4A Region I loser-out opener. Classmate Alec Stannard opened the scoring for the Bears (7-6-3) at the 12-minute mark, and Mac Stannard scored the final goal late in the second half. While the Hawks (3-13-2) saw their season come to an end, the Bears play No. 1 seed Sandpoint on Friday at 3:30 in a winner-to-state, loser-out contest.