Friday, September 7, 2007

WRHS boys happy with 1-1 tie in driving rain

Wolverine girls rout Jerome 9-0


By JEFF CORDES
Express Staff Writer

Wood River?s Ross Parsons kicks the ball through Jerome defenders Sergio Mendoza (#18) and Sergio Martinez (#7) in a rain soaked soccer clash Wednesday in Hailey. The hard fought game ended up a 1-1 tie. Photo by David N. Seelig

Playing in driving rain for a good part of Wednesday's Great Basin Conference West showdown, the Wood River High School and Jerome boys' varsity soccer teams went after each other like it was a sunny day and the field was bone dry.

Neither team blinked nor gave an inch. Sure, they slipped and fell in the wet turf but mainly disregarded the weather and earned respectful handshakes from their opponents afterward. It was a tough game, filled with speed and skill and good scoring chances.

Both teams played very hard and very well and, fittingly, the final score was a very wet 1-1 at South Valley Sports Complex soccer field in Hailey. Wood River senior Axel Peterson equalized with only seven minutes remaining to earn the tie.

Wood River coach Matt Phillips was satisfied with his team's effort, which was purposeful from the start.

"We won the 50-50 balls, went shoulder-to-shoulder with them, had great combinations and kept up the pressure," he said. "It was a good defensive effort. We had some great shutdowns in the first half."

Phillips added about the progress, "This is where we've been heading. We're finally putting the pieces together."

Leading the aggressive effort were senior Ross Parsons and sophomore Morgan Pike in the midfield, juniors David Dredge, Kyler VanDyck and sophomore Cody Phelps in the defensive sector, and goalkeeper Colter Brehmer, who made some truly outstanding stops.

Brehmer had 10 saves in the first half alone. Wood River created its best two scoring chances just before half—Erwin Roman hitting the post on a cross from Chris DeLaCruz, and Pike firing it point blank into Jerome keeper Roman Vazquez on another excellent DeLaCruz set-up.

Narrow second-half misses by Jerome's Tim Bowler (a header just wide on a Fermin Martinez cross) and VanDyck (a direct kick through a crowd, just wide of the net) kept it scoreless as the rain intensified after the half. Then, at 67 minutes, Martinez made a quick center that Gabriel Pulido buried, while airborne.

Jerome's 1-0 lead looked big but Wood River never stopped hustling. Peterson made a couple of dangerous cross passes from the wing that just missed finding their mark.

Finally, Peterson was in the right place at the right time when Parsons banged into a Jerome defender just outside the box and the ball bounced free. Peterson left-footed the ball into the back of the net, 1-1.

The tie was huge for Wood River (2-2-2, 0-1-1 league), loser of three straight close games to Jerome at the end of last season. Jerome (6-3-1, 1-2-1) was coming off a 5-0 home win over Pocatello Tuesday. The Tigers have split with Minico and lost a 3-2 home decision to Burley.

Also Wednesday, Burley (7-0-0, 3-0-0) stayed unbeaten with a 2-1 road win at Rupert over Minico (4-3-1, 1-2-0 league). Wood River is still in the thick of things but needs a clear-cut league win. The Wolverines host Burley Wednesday, Sept. 12 and Minico Sept. 17.

Girls put goals in the net

Wood River's girls achieved several objectives with their 9-0 triumph at Jerome Wednesday. They scored a bunch of goals, won their first road game of 2007 and remained unbeaten in Great Basin West play.

Juniors Aimee Evans and Sam Johnson each scored three goals, junior Elsa Sweek added one and so did freshman Tanner Dredge. The Wolverines also scored on a Jerome own goal. Sharing the shutout were keepers Madison Gove (first half) and Alisa Durkheimer (second). It was 6-0 at half.

Evans scored her first two goals in the first seven minutes and finished her hat trick when the game was 27 minutes old.

"It was good to put some balls in the back of the net," said Wolverine coach Greg Gvozdas. "And we wanted to make sure we took care of a conference game on the road."

Gvozdas said the defense did a good job shutting down Jerome striker Aubree Callen, who tallied six goals in Jerome's 7-6 win over Minico Saturday and two in Jerome's 4-2 loss at Pocatello Tuesday.

Wood River (2-3-1, 2-0-0 league) took a commanding league lead over Jerome's girls (3-5-1, 2-2-0 league). Hailey hosts Pocatello Monday. Both Jerome wins were over Minico.

In other results, Minico (2-5-1, 1-2-0 league) won 2-1 at Burley (1-5-1, 1-2-0) Wednesday.

On Saturday, Wood River's boys and girls travel to McCall's Sabala Field for a doubleheader against 4A Moscow and 3A McCall-Donnelly.

The Wood River girls' varsity plays Moscow at 3 p.m. and reigning State 3A champ McCall at 7 p.m. The Wolverine boys' varsity meets Moscow at 1 p.m. and McCall at 5 p.m.

Junior varsity games between Wood River and McCall are 1 p.m. (girls) and 3 p.m. (boys) at the high school field.

Wood River's girls entertain Pocatello Monday and the boys' varsity goes to Pocatello.




 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.