They're going to the State 4A boys' soccer tournament Thursday through Saturday, Oct. 27-29 at Capital Soccer Complex in Boise.
But you can never accuse the 2005 Wood River High School boys' soccer team of doing things the easy way.
They've played 18 games. Eight have been one-goal thrillers and 14 have decided by two goals or less.
In one respect that's just life at the 4A level of Idaho soccer.
But defense has been paramount more than ever before in a Wood River program that prides itself on strong defense—and has three state soccer championships to show for it.
Even so, last week's grueling series of five games in seven days posed an unprecedented challenge for Wood River in its goal of returning to the State 4A soccer tournament.
The challenge was mere survival and Wood River responded admirably.
Over four midweek days the Wolverines played 300 minutes of soccer. One of the games was played in Hailey, the second in Burley and the third in Pocatello. Each game went past the 80 minutes of regulation into two 10-minute sudden-death overtime periods and then into a penalty kick shootout.
And Wood River won two of those shootouts.
After losing 2-1 to Burley in a PK shootout in last Monday's Great Basin Conference West championship game at Burley, the Wolverines turned around the next day and nipped Minico of Rupert 1-0 in another shootout, host Wood River winning this one 4-3 in penalty kicks.
Needing two more road wins to make state through the back door, Wood River somehow got the job done—beating Century of Pocatello 2-1 Thursday with a 5-4 edge in penalty kicks, then breezing past Hillcrest of Idaho Falls 2-0 Saturday in the penultimate state play-in game at Bannock County field in Pocatello.
"We're very tired but it's worth it," said senior defender Michael Dale after Saturday's 2-0 win, which was essentially a breather after three consecutive games decided by shootouts. "Now we get a week of a break before we go hard again at state."
Wins over Hillcrest, Century
Top scorer Carl Jablonski (12 goals), a Wolverine junior, took a scintillating lead pass from senior Spencer Flade at 30 minutes for a 1-0 lead. And Dale gave coach Farrell Swain the first breathing room she's had in two weeks with a pretty goal nine minutes into the second half after a Bryce Newcomb corner.
Dale's first-ever varsity goal was a top-shelf job that came after he rushed into the goal-mouth melee, Austin McCann first getting his head on Newcomb's corner kick.
"It was my first goal and it felt really good," Dale said afterward. "I didn't need to mark anyone on the corner so I pushed up, got a perfect ball and had a perfect finish."
Coach Swain couldn't have been happier for Dale's insurance goal, and not only because it gave her a chance to insert her substitutes and give her overworked regulars some rest.
She said, "Michael Dale just played an amazing game on defense against Hillcrest and for him to score was just icing on the cake."
Dale added, "We had to keep recovering defensively against Hillcrest and we were able to do that. Hillcrest was aggressive, but we won the majority of the balls."
Swain said about the Hillcrest game, "One of my goals had been to get the score up a little to give them a few minutes rest. Fortunately our play stayed the same when the subs went in. They played really well."
Wood River dominated an injury-depleted Hillcrest squad from the get-go in Saturday's warm weather game, outshooting the Knights 11-4 in the first half and 19-10 overall. Hillcrest had lost three key players to injuries in Thursday's 4-1 playoff win over Blackfoot in Idaho Falls.
It looked like Wood River might need only one goal, and Austin McCann had three great chances in the first 17 minutes. Then, Newcomb got the ball ahead to Flade in the midfield, and Flade spotted Jablonski darting up the center at 30 minutes.
Flade said, "I saw an opening between two defenders—one who was slowing up and another playing behind—and I thought I'd put it between the two. Luckily the ball went through and Carl got it and took it in for the goal."
In Swain's 3-5-2 scheme featuring an offensive center midfielder, a withdrawn center midfielder and two forwards, players like Flade and senior Garrett Leo are very important. Against Hillcrest, Flade and Leo played great, according to Swain.
Swain said, "Garrett and Spencer Flade are defensive midfielders and stoppers whose job is to contain the ball and keep it in the offensive half. They play side-by-side and their personalities work together well in those roles. Today, they totally controlled the center of the field."
Flade added, "We always try to build up the field starting from the back. We played pretty well doing that today. We possessed the ball and finished. It was good to win and not go into overtime again because a lot of the guys are injured, have sore muscles and need to get their ankles wrapped before each game."
Goalkeeper Jesse Stark (6 saves) wasn't really tested against Hillcrest and the Wolverines recorded their eighth shutout in 19 games. But
Stark was truly up against the wall Thursday in the win-or-go-home playoff game against Century.
Century's talented junior Brent Kisling made a penalty kick at 24 minutes after a Wood River handball in the box. Although the Wolverines outshot Century 30-10 including the overtimes, according to Swain, the Hailey boys didn't score until 63 minutes. Then, Jablonski took a ball from McCann and made it 1-1.
"We dominated the entire game," said Swain. "It was probably the best I've seen them possess the ball. Our defense was okay, but our offensive players were the heroes."
The Wolverines had three corner kicks in the overtimes but still couldn't find the net at Burley.
In the first penalty shootout, Garrett Leo, McCann, Bill Dankanyin and Spencer Cordovao made their kicks. Century tied it 4-4 on kicks by Kisling, John Michael Mooney, Chio Lopez and Gib Omar.
The outcome went to a second set of five kickers for each team. Juniors Travis Amick and Ben Gourlay couldn't solve Century keeper Skyler Bloxham on the first two kicks, but Century couldn't make theirs, Stark contributing a save. Then, Slade made it 5-4 and Stark made a huge save to finally finish the struggle.
"I felt pretty confident before my kick. Jesse had made a good save and I felt I had to make it for the team. So I shot into the lower right," Flade said. And Stark came through again.
Looking ahead to state
With the clutch wins over Century and Hillcrest, the Wood River boys (13-5-1, 7-4-1 away from home) earned a state tournament trip for the ninth consecutive year, and for the 18th time since the school first sanctioned soccer in 1986.
They'll be back on a familiar pitch—Capital Soccer Complex Thursday—and they'll be going against a familiar first-round opponent in Skyview of Nampa Thursday at 12:15 p.m. Last year Skyview beat Wood River 3-1 in the first round en route to fourth place in the state.
Coach Swain is optimistic. She said, "I think we're peaking at the right time compared to last year, when we peaked a little early."
Defense is a plus. The Wolverines have allowed only four goals in the last 560 minutes—two deflected shots by Minico, a typical Eduardo Anguiano beat-the-defense goal for Burley and Thursday's PK by Century's Kisling.
Skyview (13-1-3) is the Boise-area champion, having beaten Caldwell 5-0, Kuna 1-0 and Nampa 3-2 in the championship game Thursday.
Going into state, the Idahosports.com rankings are #1 Nampa, #2 Burley, #3 Skyview, #4 Sandpoint and #5 Kuna.
On the same side of the bracket, Great Basin West champ Burley (16-2-1) will play Emmett (13-7-3) Thursday. Emmett had a tough playoff road after losing 7-1 to Nampa, including 5-0, 7-2 and 4-1 wins over Vallivue, Mountain Home and Kuna. Emmett prevailed 2-0 over Post Falls in Saturday's play-in game.
Eastern Idaho foes Bonneville and Pocatello will square off. Bonneville was the Sixth District champ by a 3-1 score over Blackfoot, while Pocatello (10-5-2) barely lost 6-5 (2 OT) to Burley in Thursday's 3-1 PK shootout that was the Great Basin title game.
Another big money game Thursday matches northern Idaho champion Sandpoint against Nampa (12-2-1). Nampa is the only team to have beaten Sandpoint this season, by a 2-1 score in Nampa Sept. 17. Sandpoint has won three State 4A titles in four years including last year's 1-0 victory over Blackfoot in the championship.
But Post Falls pushed Sandpoint into a shootout before Sandpoint won in the First District championship game.
Looking back, Nampa captured third place in 2004 by a 1-0 score over Skyview. Burley was last year's consolation winner 3-2 (OT) over Moscow. Wood River went two-and-out including a 2-0 loss to Burley.
The state championship, third-place and consolation games are Saturday also at 12:15 p.m. in west Boise.
Carl Jablonski plays a ball with Austin McCann looking on during Saturday's 2-0 state play-in triumph over Hillcrest. Jablonski scored the first goal which was the eventual game winner. Photo by Rick Rutkowski
