It took hard work and good fortune for The Community School boys' varsity soccer team to snap a five-game winless streak with a 2-1 High Desert Soccer Conference home win over Declo Monday.
Coach Richard Whitelaw's Cutthroats couldn't break through against Declo's fine goalkeeper Connor Garner, who made save after save on the Sun Valley boys including a leaping stop on a point-blank shot by Bergen Palmer at 54 minutes of a 1-1 tie.
An own goal in the final 10 minutes lifted the Cutthroats (3-4-3, 3-2-2 league) to only their second victory of the season at Elkhorn's Browning Field.
Tony Martin, a Cutthroat sophomore, and Declo's Erik Henrickson traded first-half scores. Martin's fourth goal of the season came after a Cassidy Carson centering pass at two minutes. Hendrickson's was on a 27-yard direct kick.
"Man of the Match" for the Cutthroats was Carson, a freshman wing who created numerous scoring chances. Sharing the goalkeeping were Tom Crosby and Riley Berman. Declo (1-7-0, 1-6-0) has only beaten Filer 3-0 this fall.
Friday, the Cutthroat boys battled to a 2-2 tie at Bliss behind goals by Tanner Flanigan and "Man of the Match" Jackson Bates. Bliss (4-2-1, 3-1-1) was coming off a huge 3-0 road win at league-leading Wendell (4-1-1, 4-1-1) two days before.
Next: Cutthroat teams travel to Filer today, Wednesday. The girls host Twin Falls Friday Sept. 19 starting at 4:30 p.m. The Sun Valley boys travel to Twin Falls Friday for varsity and JV non-league challenges.
After a 10-day break used for school trips, the Cutthroats return to action with two key games Monday, Sept. 29 at Buhl. The league-leading Buhl girls (6-0-1) snapped The Community School's 44-game league winning streak dating back to 2003 with a 3-0 victory at Elkhorn Sept. 4. The Buhl boys (4-2-2) also beat the Cutthroats 3-1.
Girls post 11-0, 4-0 shutouts
Coach Kelly Feldman's Cutthroat girls (5-4-1, 5-1-1 league) made it three consecutive wins Monday with an 11-0 trouncing of the Declo Hornets at Sagewillow Farms. Nine different Cutthroats scored in the win.
Scoring two goals each were Teagen Palmer (12 goals season) and Freya Dickey. Singles came from Hailey Rheinschild, Emma Wilander, Maddie duPont, Kelly Hennessy, Kerry Lee Nelson, Marin Shepardson and Nellie Brown. Making her first start of the season was duPont, and Shepardson tallied her first-ever Sun Valley goal.
A through ball delivered by Nelson set Palmer free for the first goal, at 12 minutes. Rheinschild was credited with an own goal at 14. India Emerick assisted Palmer's second goal. Dickey zigzagged through the Hornets for a 4-0 halftime lead.
Wilander made it 5-0 with her left foot, assisted by Dickey. Dickey scored at 65 minutes, 6-0, and duPont crunched a 30-yard shot, 7-0. Hennessy hit a 24-yard shot, then Josie Bunce centered to Nelson for the ninth goal. A Brown center found Shepardson, who scored. Brown finished the scoring.
Coach Feldman said her team did a good job of splitting the defense and hitting the corners with passes. "It was nice to be able to finish some of those cross passes," she said, assigning praise to the passing abilities of midfielder Dickey.
Hennessy also did a good job in the midfield and Shepardson excelled as always on defense.
On Friday, Palmer scored two goals and Brown and Wilander added singles as the visiting Cutthroat girls blanked Bliss by a score of 4-0.
Community School goalkeeper Tom Crosby flies high to reach a Wood River shot during the 3-0 Wolverine win Sept. 6 at Browning Field, Elkhorn. Wood River’s Austin Cruz is right behind Crosby. Photo by Willy Cook
