Playing on a field spotted with snow and in bone-chilling wind, The Community School girls started their High Desert Soccer Conference title defense with a 10-0 win over the Gooding Senators Saturday on the Sagewillow Farms pitch.
Freshman Teagen Palmer (24 goals) scored her third three-goal "hat trick" in the last four games and the #2-seeded Cutthroats out-shot the #7 Gooding 29-1 (8-2 corner kicks) in a first-round game of the seven-team league tourney.
The streaking Sun Valley girls (9 shutouts season) made it five consecutive wins and prevailed for the ninth time in their last 10 games—those nine victories by a 51-5 margin. They haven't allowed a goal in four games and 320 minutes.
"We've really come into our own," said seventh-year coach Kelly Feldman (72-35-7), whose youthful Cutthroats with four freshmen and seven sophomores improved to 11-5-1 on the season and 7-3-0 at home.
Feldman was happy with Saturday's win, and the fact that the cold-weather game in Elkhorn finally ended, but she was happiest for one of her four seniors, central defender Keller Gibson. Keller scored her first goal in the second half.
Palmer opened the scoring parade with a left-footer from the top of the box on the fifth Cutthroat shot of the game, at 12 minutes. Freshman Hailey Rheinschild sped down the left wing and passed to sophomore Emma Wilander, who scored from 15 yards at 13 minutes.
Later in the half, Wilander blocked a Gooding clearing pass and the ball went to Palmer, who calmly teed it up and shot into the net, 3-0 half.
Gibson, normally a defender with teammates Daniela Stokes, Marin Shepardson, Chelsea Cloud and Kayla Cloud, came up and stuck the ball into the corner of the net on a Kelly Hennessy cross for a 4-0 game at the 46-minute mark.
Hennessy, a sophomore who makes her presence known in the midfield, made it 5-0 on a one-timer from 32 yards that bounced over the keeper's head. She served a ball to Gabi Perenchio on the right wing, and Gabi found the top corner.
Rheinschild and Palmer both scored in the box for an 8-0 game, Hennessy notched her second goal and fourth of the season from 17 yards at 68 minutes, and Wilander (8 goals season) finished a Perenchio centering pass for the 10-0 final.
The successful outcome for the Cutthroats meant they needed to win one more game, Tuesday at home against the #3 Filer, in order to qualify for their eighth consecutive State 3A tournament berth. Filer (9-5-1) advanced with a 3-0 victory over Declo Saturday.
Filer had yet to score on the Cutthroats in two regular-season meetings, but both games were close, 3-0 and 2-0. Palmer hadn't scored at all in the two games with Filer.
Coach Feldman said, "Filer is a good, solid team that has improved quite a bit."
The Cutthroats are very familiar with Filer, having beaten the Wildcats 8-0 in last year's HDSC championship game and 2-0 in the consolation bracket of the State 3A tourney.
A Cutthroat victory over Filer Tuesday combined with an expected Buhl Tribe win over the #5-seeded Bliss Bears (5-7-1) would have set up a High Desert championship clash between Buhl (13-1-0) and The Community School on Thursday, Oct. 16 at 4:30 p.m. on the Buhl soccer field.
In the Idahosports.com poll of 3A girls' schools, Buhl and The Community School are ranked 1-2. They've split two games, Buhl winning 3-0 in Sun Valley and the Cutthroats prevailing 3-2 at Buhl Sept. 29 on Palmer's game winner.
Buhl has two high-scoring strikers in Autumn Yturbe, who has over 150 goals in her prep career, and Mercedes Pearson. "With Buhl, it's all about shutting down Autumn and Mercedes," said Feldman.
Both teams in Thursday's championship game will already have qualified for the eight-team State 3A meet Oct. 23-25 in Caldwell, but the winner Thursday will gain a more favorable first-round draw.
Hailey boys stay alive on Pike's winner
Beaten badly Thursday and postponed by snow Saturday, the Wood River High School boys' varsity soccer team regrouped Monday afternoon and stayed alive in the Great Basin Conference West tournament.
Junior captain Morgan Pike scored a breakaway goal in the sudden death second overtime period lifting Wood River over the Minico Spartans 2-1 in a loser bracket game played at O'Leary Junior High in Twin Falls. The game was originally scheduled for Rupert Saturday.
The victory snapped a four-game winless skid for #4-seeded Wood River (8-8-1) and sent #2-seeded Minico (11-7-2) home for the season. The first playoff win for second-year Wood River coach Matt Phillips kept Hailey's chances alive for the school's first state soccer tournament berth since 2005.
But, to have a chance to continue playing, Wood River needed to beat 2003-06 Great Basin champion Burley (9-7-1) in a loser-out game Tuesday afternoon in Burley. The #3-seeded Bobcats blanked Minico 1-0 in Thursday's first-round game but lost 2-0 to top-seeded Jerome on Monday afternoon.
Jerome (16-0-1) with its win over Burley stayed unbeaten, won its second straight GBW title and qualified for the State 4A tourney Oct. 23 in Caldwell.
In Monday's game, Minico pulled ahead at 19 minutes on a goal by junior Jorge Carrillo that made the score 1-0 at half. Senior Kyler VanDyck converted a corner kick by Bryan Donoso to make it 1-1, and Pike tallied the winner in overtime.
Phillips said, "The boys put on a show in the second half. Our passing and shots were good, and our effort was great. In overtime our passing started to frustrate and wear down Minico. Morgan beat two defenders and the goal keeper to score with four minutes left."
This year, Cutthroat boys make an early exit
After two seasons of resounding success on the soccer pitch including 34 wins in 40 games and a 20-1-1 home mark, The Community School boys hit a few speed bumps in 2008.
Suddenly the Cutthroats, winners of two straight State 3A consolation trophies, found it tremendously difficult to put the ball in the net—and they also found serious improvement among other teams in the High Desert Soccer Conference.
They played a bunch of close games and just couldn't get over the hump. Thirteen of their 17 games were settled by two goals or less, but the Cutthroats (2-6-5) prevailed in only two of those 13 games.
A series of frustrating finishes turned into a rare losing season for 17th-year coach Richard Whitelaw.
Saturday's first-round tournament game in Gooding was a perfect example. Fourth-seeded Gooding led 1-0 at half and senior Alex Conn equalized with a second-half penalty kick. But a late Danny Lopez goal for Gooding lifted the Senators 2-1.
The result was an early exit for the #5-seeded Cutthroats (4-8-5, 4-4-4 league) in the seven-team conference tourney. Instead of playing to the final day of the state soccer tournament, the defending High Desert champions exited on the first day of the conference meet.
"Man of the Match" for the Cutthroats was Tony Martin. And Conn finished his fine career by starting 73 varsity matches, a school record.
Top-seeded Wendell (10-1-2) and #2-seeded Bliss (11-4-1) play for the High Desert title today.
Final team statistics: Community School 4-8-5 (2-3-2 home, 2-5-3 away). Goals scored: 31. Goals against: 33. Individual scoring: Tanner Flanigan 11 (48 career), Alex Conn 5, Tony Martin 5, Jackson Bates 2, Cassidy Carson 1, Wyatt Bunce 1, Cooper Hanley 1, Eddy Albarran 1, Hunter Weaver 1, Tim Kanellitsas 1, John Chrysikopoulos 1.