Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Scoring eludes Cutthroats (12-8-1) at state soccer

Fruitland finally nails down State 3A title


By JEFF CORDES
Express Staff Writer

Coach Kelly Feldman's Community School girls' soccer team (12-8-1) wasn't alone in having trouble scoring goals during last weekend's State 3A soccer tournament in Caldwell.

When Idaho's best 5A/4A/3A teams gathered in the Treasure Valley for three days, 38 of the 66 games were shutouts. With all the talented strikers and scorers assembled, it indicated strong defenses and goalies prevailed more often than not.

The Cutthroats encountered tough defenses and goalies in their two losses, Thursday's 1-0 double overtime loss in a 3-2 penalty kick shootout to the Shelley Russets, and Friday's 1-0 setback to the 2007 3A champion and eventual 2008 consolation winner Teton (19-4-1).

Fruitland's Grizzlies (10-3-2) finally won their State 3A girls' title Saturday, beating Shelley 3-0 in the championship game at Vallivue High. Fruitland outscored its three foes 9-1. Last year the Grizzlies tallied 17 goals in their three state games but lost the championship 5-4 (2 OT) to Teton in a 4-3 shootout.

The Community School Upper School Falls Sports Banquet is scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 5 at 6 p.m. Here is a recap of the eighth consecutive state trip for the Fish:

Cutthroats at state

In a strong defensive game for both teams, the Shelley Russets and Community School Cutthroats battled to a 0-0 tie after two 40-minute regulation halves and two 10-minute overtime periods Thursday.

The decision in the first-round game of the State 3A girls' soccer meet boiled down to a penalty kick shootout, which Sixth District champion Shelley (9-7-4) won 3-2.

Feldman said about Shelley loss, "We really dominated the first half and needed to score, but we didn't. Shelley's goalie was good. Marin (Shepardson) had a stellar game at the back and Josie (keeper Bunce) had a great game.

"All our freshmen came to play and did a really good job and so did our seniors. They did everything we asked them to do except score, which has been a problem for us at state."

Scoring for the Cutthroats in the shootout were senior Maddie duPont as the first shooter and senior Keller Gibson, the second. At that point, The Community School led 2-1, Russets keeper Kristy Gulbransen having scored first.

Then Shelley's senior sweeper Chantelle Dabb buried a high shot for a 2-2 tie. Cutthroat freshman Teagen Palmer left-footed her team's third shot just wide. Keeper Bunce made a fine save on a line drive by Shelley freshman Allee Alverson.

Cutthroat freshman Nellie Brown went for the corner on the fourth shot but Russets keeper Gulbransen (18 saves) dove and made the save.

On Shelley's fifth shot, senior defender Aileen Vega stashed a goal in the left corner of the net, and Cutthroat senior Shepardson hit the crossbar with her attempt.

The reason the Cutthroats made it to the shootout was a great save by Bunce (10 saves) on a testing bid by Shelley freshman Hillary Nelson with two minutes left in the second golden-goal overtime period.

In Friday's loser-out game against Teton, Redskins' sophomore Chloe Place tallied in the first half but the Cutthroats had their chances to equalize after intermission, particularly on two attacks started on the left flank by Hailey Rheinschild.

While Fruitland won the girls' title, the Payette Pirates (15-2-2) breezed to the 3A boys' championship 5-1 over American Falls.

In all, it was a tough state tournament for the 14 eastern Idaho teams (12-25 record in all 3 divisions at state) and not a great state trip for Districts 4/5/6, skunked in the first-place trophy category. The Boise-area won five of the six state championships, Sandpoint in 4A boys the only exception last weekend.

Final team statistics: Community School 12-8-1 (7-3-0 home, 5-5-1 away, 10-1-1 league) with 9 shutouts in 21 games. Goals scored: 75 (3.6). Goals against: 31 (1.5). Individual scoring: Teagen Palmer 25, Emma Wilander 12, Hailey Rheinschild 7, Nellie Brown 6, Gabi Perenchio 5, Freya Dickey 5, Kelly Hennessy 4, Maddie duPont 4, Kerry Lee Nelson 2, Keller Gibson 2, Josie Bunce 1, India Emerick 1, Marin Shepardson 1.




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