One goal in each half and a ferocious defense gave defending State 4A champion Bishop Kelly Knights a 2-0 victory over the upset-minded Wood River Wolverines Thursday morning in a first-round game of the State 4A girls' soccer tournament at Brothers Park in Caldwell.
Bishop Kelly senior Emily Raimondi slipped behind the Wood River defense and scored on a cross pass from senior Chelsea Bokan at the 11-minute mark, and the Knights added an insurance goal in the 76th minute when junior forward Julie Zamzow beat the Hailey defense on a pass from sophomore Ali Eisenbeiss. The Knights (18-2-0) outshot Wood River 14-11 for the game, but the Wolverines applied most of the pressure in the second half with an 8-7 edge in shots.
"It's been a curse for us in the past, and it was today as well—lots of shots and no goals," said Wood River coach Greg Gvozdas.
Wood River sophomore goalkeeper Madison Gove (12 saves) was solid at the back, but Bishop Kelly senior Alicia Berggen (3 saves) didn't see as much of the action. That was chiefly because of a rock-solid defense led by sweeper K.K. Long, a senior, along with senior Carmen Angleton, junior Christa Saur and junior Anna Marie Totorica.
Gvozdas said about playing the defending champs in the first state tournament game, "Early on, I thought the occasion seemed too big for us, and that early goal got us behind the eight ball. We had two really good chances in the first half, by Tanner Dredge and Aimee Evans, and it would have been a much different story going into the half 1-1.
"We tried to turn to our seniors for leadership at the half, but we just couldn't get good enough chances. Our free kicks, corner kicks and through balls just weren't precise enough."
The best Hailey chances in the first half came about midway through, when leading scorer Dredge sprinted down the left wing and launched a cannon shot that Knights keeper Berggen got a piece of, and also at the 38-minute mark, when Evans broke through the defense after a free kick by Sam Johnson and shot point-blank, only to be stopped on a brilliant save by Berggen.
It was a disappointing loss for the top-ranked Wood River girls (16-2-1), who had to turn their attention to winning the consolation bracket trophy, an achievement that Wood River earned in 2004 and again in 2007. Only three trophies are awarded at state, for the championship, for third place and for the consolation bracket winner.
The Wolverines, State 4A consolation champs with a 2-1 record last October, will have the opportunity to play all the way until the final day of the eight-team tournament when they clash with the Bonneville Bees from Idaho Falls today, Friday, at 11 a.m. Moscow (8-8-4) blanked Bonneville 6-0 Thursday, and Moscow will play Bishop Kelly today at 2 p.m. in the championship semi-final
"We have to take the evening to regroup after such a difficult loss. We'd like to stay until Saturday," Gvozdas said.
The Wolverines have never beaten Bishop Kelly in four tries and have been outscored 20-0 in those games, twice by shutouts in the first round of the State 4A tournament.
Bishop Kelly, winners of 37 consecutive games against 4A opponents, had been upset by Skyview of Nampa (16-4-0) in last Thursday's Third District championship game. So the Knights ended up as the second seed out of the Boise area, which is why they drew Wood River in the first round at state.
In games later Thursday, Skyview went against Century of Pocatello, and Hillcrest of Idaho Falls (13-2-1, 94-18 goals against) encountered Columbia High School (13-6-2).
Century was last year's State 4A third-place finisher after winning three state titles in 2003 and 2005-06. Bishop Kelly is the only other school in the field that has won a 4A title, since 2000-02 and 2004 winner Sandpoint has elected to play 5A soccer and has qualified for the State 5A tourney Thursday.
Check today's Express Web site for updates on the morning Wood River game against Bonneville, and also for news about The Community School's games in the State 3A tournament at Vallivue High School in Caldwell.
