Wednesday, September 10, 2008

First to the ball, Hailey boys blank Fish 3-0

Shutout at Browning Field


Clinging to that always-precarious 2-0 lead in soccer, Wood River needed an insurance goal in Saturday’s game against The Community School—and junior captain Morgan Pike (left) set the stage with this centering pass that senior David Dredge converted for a 3-0 lead four minutes into the second half. Defending for the Cutthroats is junior Bergen Palmer (right).

Pretty passing and winning the 50-50s, indeed, things were clicking on all cylinders for the Wood River High School boys' varsity soccer team Saturday during its annual grudge match with The Community School of Sun Valley, at Elkhorn.

Wood River, lifted big time by its supporting cast and strong defense, got single goals from senior Austin Moses, sophomore Charlie Evans and senior David Dredge to beat the host Cutthroats 3-0 before hundreds of fans at sun-baked Browning Field.

It was virtually no contest from the outset as Wood River pushed the action with a 16-3 advantage in corner kicks and also owned the shooting edge 11-4. Hailey goalkeeper Colter Brehmer (3 saves) had a quiet day. Cutthroat freshman Tom Crosby (6 saves) was busier.

Doing the job to limit the Cutthroat lead passes to junior striker Tanner Flanigan was the stalwart Wolverine defense of senior Spencer Fullmer, junior Cody Phelps, senior Kyler VanDyck and hustling sophomore sweeper Spyder Turco.

"We focused on defense all over the field and winning the ball," said Wood River coach Matt Phillips. "Our defense stayed in tight and didn't stray out. We played as a unit, so it all came together."

Phillips liked that the scoring came from Hailey players who ordinarily don't score. He said, "We've been talking about playing pretty soccer and the goals will come."

The first one came early. Moses, scoring his first goal since 2006, headed home a Dredge corner kick at seven minutes for a 1-0 Wood River lead. Goalkeeper Brehmer guessed correctly, lunging to the right on a Flanigan penalty kick at 17 minutes, and Flanigan hit the post, no good.

Evans, younger brother of senior soccer star Aimee Evans, tallied his first-ever varsity goal in the box at 34 minutes giving the Wolverines a 2-0 lead at the half. Then, four minutes after half, junior captain Morgan Pike walked in from the left wing side and centered to Dredge, who pounded the ball home—his first goal.

Leading the Fish was "Man of the Match" Bergen Palmer.

The only thing Phillips didn't like was vandalism at Browning Field that apparently was caused by Wood River supporters sometime Friday night or early Saturday morning. "I was disappointed with the vandalism," Phillips said, telling his players that they wouldn't have liked it if the shoe were on the other foot.

By winning, 4A Wood River snapped a two-game losing streak to 3A Cutthroat teams and posted the Hailey school's 10th shutout in the 25-season, 55-game series. The Wolverines now lead one of the state's longest soccer rivalries 32-20-3 count. Amazingly, the two teams are virtually identical in total goals, the Cutthroats 113 and Wood River 111.

Wood River (2-3-0, 0-1-0 league) didn't have long to savor its non-conference win over the Cutthroats. The Wolverines hosted reigning Great Basin West champ Jerome (4-0-1, 1-0-0 league) Tuesday in Hailey. A state qualifier in 2007, Jerome has played well on the road.

Jerome (14-6-3 last fall) has beaten Twin Falls 6-2, Hillcrest 5-1 and Middleton 4-1, all on the road, and played to a 2-2 draw at Pocatello. The Tigers took the early league lead with a 3-1 home win over last year's State 4A consolation champion Burley (2-3-0, 0-1-0). Burley has already lost as many games this season as it did last fall, 18-3-0.

Wood River will travel to McCall Saturday, Sept. 13 for games with the McCall-Donnelly and Moscow, then visit Burley next Tuesday.




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