Leading scorer Margii Driscoll wasn't feeling well Monday, but she helped make the Wood River High School girls' varsity soccer team feel a lot better about its 4-4 tie with the Pocatello Indians, at Pocatello.
Driscoll scored two goals in the second half, her 22nd and 23rd of the season, as highly-regarded Wood River (6-1-2) battled back from 2-0, 3-2 and 4-3 deficits to earn the 4-4 tie with a very good Pocatello team.
"Pocatello is one of the strongest teams in 4A this year so we were really happy with the result," said Wood River coach Greg Gvozdas. "Our goal was to play a full 80 minutes and match Pocatello's effort and intensity at their place."
Taking a 1-0 half-time lead with a 30-yard shot in the 30th minute, Pocatello made it 2-0 just two minutes into the second half. Driscoll promptly responded with a goal, on a pass from Aimee Evans, then freshman Evans tallied her sixth goal from far out in the 52nd minute.
Pocatello went ahead 3-2 and Driscoll, who played sparingly in each half, equalized at 64 minutes. Again the Indians crept ahead 4-3. Hailey junior Brianna Hull-Mullins emerged from a ruckus in the box to right-foot the game-tying goal into the left corner at 71 minutes.
"The first half was a mid-field battle but the game really opened up in the final 25 minutes," said Gvozdas about the flurry of six goals down the stretch of the Great Basin Conference match-up.
Wood River, a 3-0 and 3-1 winner over Pocatello last year, plays a big league game at Burley (1-4-2, 1-0-1 league) today, Wednesday and then has five of its final six games at home starting next Monday with the same Pocatello Indians. Burley lost 4-0 to Twin Falls Monday.
Boys fall 3-1 to Pocatello
Strong on defense, the Pocatello boys' soccer team (5-2-1) used quickness and speed to rally past the host Wood River boys 3-1 Monday in Hailey. The result snapped Wood River's three-game winning streak.
Things looked good for Wood River early as the fast-starting Wolverines out-shot the Indians 5-1 in the first nine minutes and 13-5 for the first half. A pretty set up from Garrett Leo to Axel Peterson led to Spencer Cordovano's goal at six minutes and a 1-0 Hailey lead.
Pocatello made it 1-1 on Jeff Johnson's penalty kick at 22 minutes then counterattacked with a Jim Merkley center to Mario Wade for the eventual game winner at 38 minutes. Johnson headed home a long free kick by Skylar Tarbet five minutes into the second half.
Sweeper Byron Eckert led the Indian defense that was impenetrable after the early moments.
Hailey coach Farrell Swain said, "We came out ready to go, but Pocatello is a good, fast team and they made good decisions. Their defense was great. They put four or five guys back and we couldn't get through."
Wood River (4-3-1, 2-0 league) has another tough one today when Burley (7-0, 2-0) comes to Hailey for a 4:30 p.m. clash. Burley, a 3-2 winner over Pocatello earlier this season, downed Twin Falls 3-1 Monday. Prior to Monday's game Burley had four straight shutouts including 6-0 and 4-0 league wins over Jerome and Minico.
