Coach Farrell Swain's Wood River High School boys' varsity soccer team needed one victory last week to nail down the Great Basin Conference West second seed and a first-round tournament home game.
The Wolverines got it convincingly Thursday, beating a much-improved Minico Spartans squad 3-0 on freshman goalkeeper Colter Brehmer's shutout at South Valley Sports Complex soccer field, Hailey.
Swain said, "I told them they needed to step it up and they did."
Wood River's first goal against Minico came in the fourth minute when junior co-captain Ross Parsons served a ball into the box and junior Erwin Roman (3 goals season) headed it home for a 1-0 lead. Brehmer made an excellent diving save on a 34th-minute breakaway to preserve the lead going into intermission.
The Hailey offense picked up the pace after the half and two players picked up their first goals of the year.
Senior co-captain Ben Gourlay bounced a low, 30-yard free kick through the Spartan defense for a 2-0 lead at 56 minutes. Then, Austin Cruz and Austin Moses won a 50-50 ball and got it over to defender Kyler VanDyck, who fired it into the corner at 77 minutes for the 3-0 final.
"Our defense was much better and much more focused in the second half," said Swain about sweeper Gourlay, stopper Ruben Hinojo and outside backs Kyle Rose and VanDyck. "Minico came in here in the middle of a great week, having beaten Pocatello and Preston and having lost to Burley 2-1."
Wood River's offense has struggled all season, but the team had worked on ball possession in practices and it paid off. Swain said, "We've been practicing a weave where our outside mids run to the corner flag. And the players did exactly what we practiced in the game."
In addition, goalkeeper Brehmer had "a great warm-up" and remained aggressive when the whistle blew, Swain said. She laughed, "I challenged him to be the feisty player I had when I coached him in U12s."
Wood River's modest streak of success that included two wins (both over Minico) in three games came to an end Saturday during "Senior Night" festivities for seniors Teton Brown and Ben Gourlay in Hailey.
The Jerome Tigers, a quick, athletic bunch that has made great strides this season, scored a goal in each half and escaped with a 2-0 Great Basin triumph. Tiger senior Ryan Marlatt lobbed a ball over Brehmer's head at 27 minutes, then Sergio Martinez scored on a pass from Gabriel Pulido at 45 minutes.
Wolverine freshman Morgan Pike had a chance for the equalizer at 36 minutes, but his penalty kick hit the post. The teams were fairly equal, Jerome out-shooting Wood River 16-15. Brehmer (10 saves) and his counterpart Javier Avila (13) were busy.
It was Jerome's first-ever boys' soccer win over Wood River. The Wolverines had owned the Tigers with an 11-0 record and 51-8 goals against before Saturday, including a 2-0 shutout Sept. 7 in Jerome.
Second-seeded Wood River (4-9-1, 3-3 league) will host Jerome (4-9-2, 2-4) on Thursday, Oct. 5 on the Hailey pitch in the first round of the Great Basin tournament, with Burley (14-0-0, 6-0) entertaining Minico (3-13-0, 1-5) on Thursday as well.
The second-round games will be played Friday.
