The first half and its 1-1 tie were a little shaky for the top-seeded Community School boys' soccer team in its pivotal High Desert Soccer Conference tournament home game against the #4-seeded Wendell Trojans Tuesday at Browning Field in Elkhorn.
Before the entire team went off to its halftime quarters for a wee bit of a talk, Cutthroat coach Richard Whitelaw pulled aside his four key seniors for a little preliminary dialogue. He talked to co-captains Travis Stone, Connor Brown and Max Harris as well as senior Mac Whittington.
What did Whitelaw say?
"I reminded them this is YOUR team. I let them know for the first time that if we won the game, we would go the state tournament. I put the onus on them. And boy, did they answer! What an excellent second half! What a way to make state!"
Stone, shrugging off a sprained ankle and busting loose from a two-game scoring drought, scored three of his four goals after the half as The Community School remained unbeaten with a convincing 6-1 victory. The Cutthroats out-shot the Trojans 22-6 including 9-1 on corner kicks.
Recording his third hat trick of the season and 10th of a sterling four-year Cutthroat career, "Man of the Match" Stone (28 goals) improved his career total to 87 goals in 65 starts and moved within striking distance of Josh Stanek's school-record 94 with up to four games left.
Sophomore striker Tanner Flanigan (20 goals) and Whittington delivered singles while Connor Brown, Max Harris, Bergen Palmer, Alex Conn and Flanigan (2) added assists. Junior sweeper Conn and his back mates Tyler Davis, Whittington and Jackson Bates had a strong effort.
The outcome gave the Cutthroats (14-0-1, 8-0-0 home) their eighth state tournament berth in the last nine years and sent them up against #3-seeded Bliss (9-4-1) in the conference championship game for state seeding purposes Thursday, Oct. 11, on the same Sagewillow Farms field.
It was a rematch of last year's High Desert title game won by host Bliss (16-1-1 overall) by a 2-1 score en route to second place in the State 3A tournament behind Teton of Driggs. Both The Community School and Bliss (a 2-1 winner over Gooding Tuesday) have qualified for the State 3A tournament Oct. 18-20 in Buhl.
But Tuesday's game in Sun Valley came with a price. Junior goalkeeper Riley Berman injured his back on a collision with a Wendell player midway through the first half and had to be taken to the hospital. He broke three ribs, Whitelaw said. Foreign exchange student Eugene Zak from Germany, a native of Ukraine, replaced Berman and performed well.
The Cutthroats dominated the 50-50 balls, got instant offense from Coon's booming goal kicks and scored early in each half Tuesday against a speedy Wendell team.
Connor Brown's corner kick and Stone's header made it 1-0 at six minutes. Miguel Orozco equalized on a long free kick at 38 minutes, after Berman had left the game. Wendell keeper Junior Cortez (10 saves) stopped a Flanigan blast at the corner of the net just before half.
Only two minutes after half, Harris chased down Brown's long throw-in deep in the Trojan box and passed to Stone, who made no mistake. Palmer's lofted kick sent Flanigan into the Wendell box, and Tanner found a corner with the side of his foot for a 3-1 lead five minutes in.
The Cutthroat defense continued to interrupt Wendell's offense and keep potential scoring plays from developing. Meanwhile, Flanigan did it nearly all by himself—dribbling it into the corner by the flag, faking two defenders out of their shorts and then crossing to Stone, 4-1.
Stone ran down a tremendous Conn goal kick and clanged his fourth goal off the pipe at 36 minutes and took a breather on the bench with the score safely in Sun Valley favor at 5-1. Still on the field, Flanigan pressed the ball in the zone and passed to Whittington for the sixth goal—moments after a scintillating save by Zak on a Trojan tester.
The Community School?s Travis Stone scored the hat trick plus one to lead the Cutthroats to a 6-1 victory over Wendell Tuesday in Elkhorn. The win secured a state tournament berth for the 14-0-1 Sun Valley team. Photo by David N. Seelig
