For the week of September 24 - 30, 2003

Win, lose and draw

WR’s week in girls’ soccer

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Win, lose and draw sounds like a good name for a game show, but it actually summed up the Wood River girls’ soccer team’s week on the pitch.

The Wolverines (2-5-3) capped their busy Homecoming week with a 2-2 draw against defending State 3A champion McCall-Donnelly (4-2-1) in Kuna Saturday in the Boise area.

With her team trailing 2-0 at halftime, senior captain Charlotte Gourlay scored two goals in the first 11 minutes of the second stanza to salvage a tie against the reigning champs.

But before the Wolverine faithful pin their hopes on a tie, they should know McCall coach Lex Bernstein started three freshmen against Hailey.

Bernstein added his team might not even make the state tournament given it plays in a league with Payette (a 2-0 winner over McCall) and Weiser.

"We lost seven seniors who had been critical to the program and we’re making that transition," Bernstein said.

Nonetheless Bernstein called it "a good even match" and had high praise for Wood River midfielder Jessie Pieschl.

"She was just shredding us," he said. "She went through our defense like a knife through butter."

Earlier Saturday, Wood River played 4A Kuna (8-0-1) and wound up on the short end of a 6-3 score. Kuna also nipped McCall 3-2 in another game.

Despite the weekend loss, Hailey coach Doug Stouffer was upbeat. He said, "It was a big positive for us. It was a great game. We were down 2-0 at half and the girls responded well."

Four minutes into the second half, defensive halfback Ashley Hurley cracked one in from about 25 yards out to cut the deficit in half.

Kuna scored twice to make it 4-1, but a goals by Margii Driscoll and Charlotte Gourlay made it 4-3 with 12 minutes remaining.

An own goal by Wood River and another tally by Kuna sealed the win for the Kavemen, but Stouffer was happy that his team played well against a 4A school.

Playing in their own 3A division at home Thursday in Hailey, the Wolverines spanked Snake River 10-1.

Wood River had four shots on goal in the first five minutes and broke through at the 10 minute mark when wing Rebecca Schwartzenberger converted on a goal mouth scramble.

Five minutes later, midfielder Margii Driscoll cracked a wicked goal from the far left side eliciting an apt comment from opposing coach Brian Goff. "That’s a hard shot," he observed.

The Panthers cut the lead to one on a sweet bang-bang play from Natasha Taylor to Sydney Hutchison. It was only the second time in 18 minutes that Snake River was on the other side of the 50—and it was one of the last.

Driscoll and Schwartzenberger teamed up on a corner kick to put the Wolverines up 3-1 and Wood River rolled to a 6-1 advantage at the half on goals by Pieschl, Driscoll and Schwartzenberger.

Picking up where they left off, the team’s leading scorer Charlotte Gourlay (13 goals) slotted three consecutive goals (the first just a minute in) and Ireland King dialed long distance from the right side for the final score of the game.

Wood River outshot the Panthers 29 to 3 and converted on two of their five corner kicks.

"We took advantage of the outside and really had a heyday," Stouffer said.

Wood River hosted Marsh Valley Tuesday and plays Burley at home on Friday, 4 p.m. at the South Valley Sports Complex.

The Wood River junior varsity squad pitched two more shutouts last week to bring its overall record to 7-0-1. The team, with goalies Ellen Ard and Gabby Sisson, has allowed only one goal and racked up 34.

Against the Community School on Monday, the Wolverines notched their seventh shutout with a 5-0 victory. Wood River had 45 shots on goal and seven corner kicks and it would have been worse without the stellar play of Cutthroat goalie "Oey" Parker.

"She did not give us a lot of rebounds," Wood River coach Greg Gvozdas said. Goal scorers for Wood River were Tara Cappel, Kaitlin Gasenica, Ellen Ard, Kacie Femling and Calley Brown.

In their Homecoming game against Wendell Friday, the Wolverines whipped Wendell 5-0. Grayson Palmer scored two goals. Single scores were slotted by Kimbra Turner, Alix Cayce and Kaitlin Gasenica.

The Wolverines beat Declo 2-0 Wednesday on goals by Vicky Schultz and Gasenica.

 

 

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