First-year Wood River High School boys' soccer head coach Luis Monjaras had no complaints after Friday's season opening 3-0 home win over Skyview's Hawks at South Valley Sports Complex, Hailey.
He had no complaints except the usual frustrations of any soccer coach when his players can't finish every chance. That's setting high standards. As it was, juniors Bryan Donoso and Charlie Evans and senior Hector Lopez did apply finishing touches to lift Hailey.
Monjaras said, "We probably should have scored six. Have to work on finishing. But all three were nice, creative goals set up by our players."
One player in particular, senior Luis "Freddy" Tamayo, did an outstanding set-up job by assisting on all three Hailey goals. Monjaras said, "Freddy is very, very fast, one of our best offensive players as a forward and a wide midfielder."
The coach said, "I thought we controlled 80% of the game and were very solid in the air, where we won every ball. Skyview was flat, but our players did well confusing them by dropping the ball back and hitting our players on the run.
"What I liked was everybody played as a team and stepped up, even the freshmen. Our defenders Spyder (Turco) and Cody (Phelps) were solid in the middle, Cody coming back from a back injury."
Senior goalkeeper Colter Brehmer, rarely tested, notched the shutout. Wood River had only two shutout victories all last season.
Tamayo set up Lopez 20 seconds into the game, but Lopez shanked it. The home team grabbed a 1-0 lead at the 2:13 mark on a through ball from Tamayo that Donoso pounded home. Evans made it 2-0 at 8:23 on another feed from Tamayo.
Senior Morgan Pike had two good chances early in the second half, but Wood River didn't score its final goal until the 9:38 mark after intermission, when Tamayo dropped a pass that Lopez rammed into the top.
Wood River (1-0-0) enjoyed its first-ever win over Skyview. Prior to Friday, the Wolverines were 0-4-2 in six meetings including 6-0 and 5-0 losses in 2007 and 2008. The Hailey boys had tied Skyview 1-1 and 0-0 at the 1998 and 1999 state tournament en route to back-to-back state titles.
Next, Wood River hosts Century of Pocatello (1-0-1) Saturday, Aug. 29 at 11 a.m. and then hosts reigning league champ Jerome (1-0-0) next Wednesday on the same pitch. Century equalized host Blackfoot Saturday, and Jerome won 3-1 over Madison of Rexburg Saturday.
Wood River is 4-2-0 in its soccer series with Century, but the schools haven't played since 2006, when Century prevailed by a 3-0 score.
Skyview blanks girls 2-0
Skyview's girls' soccer team, last year's State 4A tournament runner-up to Bishop Kelly of Boise, showed early-season poise Friday in a 2-0 non-conference home victory over the Wood River girls, at Nampa. The win avenged a 1-0 Skyview loss to Wood River last Aug. 23 in Hailey.
The Hawks (18-5-0 last fall) dominated the 80-minute game and kept Wolverine attacks in check. Last October in Caldwell, it took Bishop Kelly (20-2-0) two overtimes to beat Skyview 3-2 and earn BK's second consecutive state title.
Wood River (0-1-0) stays on the road Saturday, Aug. 29 with an 11 a.m. game in Pocatello against Century (1-0-0). The Wolverines won two meetings with Century last fall, 1-0 for the Great Basin Conference title and 5-0 at state.
Fast finish for Cutthroat boys in 4-1 win
The 4A Twin Falls Bruins didn't have an answer for the quickness of Community School senior Tanner Flanigan in the second half Saturday—and the host Cutthroats broke a 1-1 halftime tie for a 4-1 boys' soccer victory in Sun Valley.
Flanigan, moved from forward to center mid after half to generate more of an attack from the back, did just that by dribbling through two Bruins tacklers and threading a pass to senior striker Wyatt Bunce.
Bunce did the rest, scoring the go-ahead goal at the 58-minute mark. Team captain Flanigan then split the Twin Falls defense and pulled out the goalkeeper, rolling his 49th career goal into the short side.
Senior defender Tyler Davis, picked as "Man of the Match" by coach Richard Whitelaw, finished the scoring with his first-ever varsity goal—a penalty after Cassidy Carson was taken down in the box.
Whitelaw said about his team's come-from-behind effort to score the final four goals at Browning Field, "They did pretty well. I was happy with the result. Twin Falls ran out of the steam." He credited assistant coach Jason Lynch for making the suggestion of moving Flanigan to midfield.
"Tanner can play anywhere," said Whitelaw, who earned his 198th career win. The veteran coach cleared his bench and distributed playing minutes among 18 players. Twin Falls played shorthanded with only three subs.
On a hot summer day, Dustin Hegstrom of Twin Falls made it 1-0 for the Bruins 10 minutes into the non-conference match. Cutthroat soph Tim Kanellitsas equalized for a 1-1 tie. Cutthroat senior defenders Jackson Bates and Davis, along with sophomore defender Eric Runkel, did a fine job of shutting down Twin Falls the final 70 minutes.
Twin Falls (0-2-0) out-shot The Community School 14-9 and had a 5-2 advantage on corners but Cutthroat sophomore keeper Tom Crosby (11 saves) was sharp.
The Cutthroats (1-0-0) debuted their High Desert Soccer Conference season Tuesday at Filer. Then it's three home games in three days—Thursday against Gooding, Friday against the McCall-Donnelly Vandals, and Saturday, Aug. 29 against Canyon Ridge of Twin.
SV girls fall at Twin
Coach Kelly Feldman's Community School girls got caught up in a buzzsaw and dropped a season-opening 8-1 decision at 4A Twin Falls Saturday. Twin Falls (1-0-1) led 3-1 at halftime and capitalized in the second half when the Cutthroats were down a player.
Freshman Ellie Swanson scored the only Sun Valley goal on a pass from Kelly Hennessy.
Tuesday, the Cutthroats (0-1-0) opened their High Desert Soccer campaign at Filer.
