Friday, October 6, 2006

WR blanks Minico 6-0 in opening round

Wolverine girls take first step to state soccer meet


By JEFF CORDES
Express Staff Writer

Strong offensive play by Kacie Femling (No. 6) helped boost the undefeated Wood River Wolverines to a first round tournament victory over the Minico Spartans Photo by David N. Seelig

The first step towards the Oct. 19-21 State 4A girls' soccer tournament was a successful one Tuesday in Hailey for the unbeaten and top-ranked Wood River High School girls' varsity squad who stand this year a 14-0-1.

Sophomore Sam Johnson (13 goals) scored twice in the first eight minutes and #1-seeded Wood River knocked off the #4-seeded Minico Spartans 6-0 in the opening round of the four-school Great Basin Conference West tournament.

"Samantha's strong start set us up well," said Hailey coach Greg Gvozdas. "Defensively we played strong. One of our keys is to keep going forward and our defense did that for us. We've just got to keep finishing."

Wood River, skillfully controlling the ball and posting its 10th shutout in 15 games, was led by its defensive players Danielle Smith, Michelle McMurdo, Laura Elgee, Kallie Skahill and Makayla Cappel. They pretty much played keep-away from Minico, but both teams ran hard all game.

Although the home team played without leading scorer Aimee Evans (concussion), Wood River out-shot Minico (3-13-2) by a 21-3 margin and had an 8-0 edge in corner kicks. Minico senior goalkeeper Ashley Robinson (11 saves) was busy and Hailey senior keeper Ellen Ard (3 saves) was solid when needed.

Johnson and Tara Cappel combined on a wall pass with Johnson punching home the first goal at two minutes. Kacie Femling made a pretty lead pass after a play started by Elgee in the defensive end, and Johnson hit the top corner for a 2-0 lead at eight minutes. An own goal after a Femling/Calley Brown build-up made it 3-0.

Prettiest goal of the game was at 58 minutes—Johnson outrunning Minico defender Daniela Ramirez down the right wing and centering a pass that Cappel knocked in. It became 5-0 on a Kaitlin Gasenica corner that Brianna Hull-Mullins tapped to Hannah Fuller, who scored.

Delaney Fox redirected a Calley Brown direct kick for the 6-0 final.

Wood River clashed with #2-seeded Burley Thursday in a second-round game of the double elimination tournament at South Valley Sports Complex soccer field in Hailey. Burley defeated #3-seeded Jerome 8-2 Tuesday. The winner of the Wood River-Burley game advances into the championship game Monday, Oct. 9, at 4:30 p.m. The game will be played in Hailey if the Wolverines beat Burley.




 Local Weather 
Search archives:


Copyright © 2024 Express Publishing Inc.   Terms of Use   Privacy Policy
All Rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Express Publishing Inc. is prohibited. 

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.