CdA girls advance to 5A soccer title game

BOISE – It wasn’t pretty, but they’ll take it.

That was the attitude on the Coeur d’Alene girls sideline after a 1-0 win Friday in a State 5A soccer semifinal, a match that featured two frustrated offenses and a total of only six shots on goal.

“Honestly, I don’t think we played all that well,” Coeur d’Alene coach Tarragh Carr said. “I was hoping we’d be sharper on offense today. It’s a little disappointing, but a win is a win and we’ll take it.”

Sadie Simon scored a first-half goal and goalkeeper Amanda Wemple made sure that was all Coeur d’Alene would need, helping the Vikings reach the title game.

Coeur d’Alene and Boise will play for the title at 2 p.m. PST today at the Capital Soccer Complex in Boise. Boise defeated Capital 3-1 in the other semifinal. In consolation-bracket games, Timberline beat Borah 1-0 and Eagle shut out Highland 4-0.

Wemple only had to make three saves, but she broke up several other scoring chances with her aggressive play in goal. The junior goalkeeper has been huge in the state tournament, allowing just one goal on 18 shots in 180 minutes. She was spectacular in Thursday’s opening round, making a key save in a shootout to help the Vikings beat Timberline.

Thanks to a better defensive effort, Wemple didn’t have to be spectacular against Skyline. Coeur d’Alene was able to keep the ball out of its end for most of the game, controlling the neutral zone and forcing the Grizzlies to do most of their work near the sidelines.

With a stiff wind making it tough to control the ball, Skyline wasn’t able to generate many quality scoring chances from the edges and Coeur d’Alene protected its one-goal lead with relative ease.

Simon scored the lone goal midway through the first half, making a move on Skyline keeper Shayne Morgan and punching a shot into the open net. Simon had two of the Vikings’ three shots, creating most of CdA’s limited offense.

Carr knows her team will have to do better today if they want to beat Boise in the championship match.

“Defensively, we were strong on the ball, but offensively, we have to do better,” Carr said. “We were hoping to work on some things in this game to get ready for tomorrow, but we couldn’t get it going. We’ll have to play better tomorrow, because Boise is a strong team and we expect a real battle.”