It was the "Game of the Year." By far. So far.
And a sophomore who hadn't scored a goal all season, Ali Appleton, tallied the overtime game winner for the Wood River High School girls' varsity soccer team Monday in Hailey.
Appleton scored after an Ashley Hesteness cross pass seven minutes into the first of two 10-minute overtime periods and Wood River held off the hard-charging Twin Falls Bruins 4-3 in a fast and physical Great Basin Conference tournament semi-final contest on the Hailey soccer pitch.
The narrow victory between two evenly matched opponents meant the Wolverines are unbeaten in their last 15 games. It was Wood River's first overtime game in seven years, and its first OT win in 13 seasons.
It also assured top-seeded Wood River (14-2-1) of an automatic berth in the eight-team State 4A soccer tournament Oct. 22-24 at Caldwell. It is Wood River's 15th consecutive state tournament berth.
The Bruins of coach Katie Kauffman, conquerors of Century by a 3-2 score in Pocatello Sept. 10, fell to 13-4-2 and unfortunately lost one of their fastest and most skilled players, junior Madi Worst, to a knee injury in Monday's first overtime period.
Wood River coach Jenni Conrad, tipping her hat to the Bruins, said, "Twin Falls is by far the fastest team we've played. We're just not used to playing against that kind of speed. But our girls put their whole hearts into the game and dug down deep for the victory."
The Wolverines had beaten #2-seeded Twin Falls 2-0 and 3-2 during the season, but the previous records were basically thrown out the window as the two squads met for the first time this season on the big Hailey field—in Monday's GBC semi-final clash. Wood River had handled Minico 13-0 in Saturday's opener and Twin Falls had beaten Jerome 7-1.
Conrad said, "I think Twin Falls knew what to expect from us and they really bumped up their game."
So did Wood River.
Senior co-captain Ashley Hesteness said afterwards, "This was definitely the hardest and closest game we've had. We just kept moving forward all game. We weren't going to let anything stand in our way."
Hard-working Hailey junior right wing Ellen Davis, said, "We just pushed through the game, kept up our stamina and never let up. We're excited to be going to state."
Wood River may likely play Twin Falls again Thursday, Oct. 15 on the Hailey field in the championship game of the double elimination tournament. In Thursday's state seeding game, the Wolverines will be shooting for their sixth consecutive Great Basin Conference championship.
Twin Falls coach Kauffman said, "The more we can play good teams like Wood River, the better for us."
More importantly, with both teams going to state, the winner of Thursday's 4:30 p.m. conference title game may earn a better state seeding position.
Thursday's winner will likely play the Boise-area third-place team—Kuna or Middleton—in the opening state tournament game Oct. 22. Projected state semi-final foe would be the winner of the Oct. 22 first-round game matching Century and the Boise-area runner-up.
In theory, you want to have the defending State 4A champion and currently unbeaten Bishop Kelly Knights on the other side of the bracket—and it appears the only way to do that, if the Knights win the District 3 title, is to earn the top seed out of the Great Basin.
So, 80 minutes of hard work remains for Wood River on Thursday. But they put in 100 minutes of play Monday and survived a thrilling game before hundreds of spectators.
Two offensive machines locked horns at full speed—Wood River outscoring foes 92-17 and Twin Falls boasting a 95-19 goals-against. It was Wood River's ball control offense against the kick-and-run style embodying Bruins' strengths.
Wood River (22-3-5 against Twin Falls since 1994 and unbeaten in the last 8 meetings) out-shot the Bruins 26-11 for the game but still couldn't pull free of the determined Twin Falls visitors until overtime. Twin Falls trailed 3-1 at intermission and still managed to equalize.
Conrad said, "We came out a little flat at the start but once we got going, I think we played really well."
Early on, it looked like an easy Wood River win when junior striker Tanner Dredge scored two rapid-fire goals in the 20th and 21st minutes—her first on a header to finish a beautiful Erin Murphy cross pass. The scoring play started from Appleton's hard work at midfield. Dredge's second goal was a nice chip in the box after a perfect lead by K.T. Martinez.
Dredge (32 goals season) tied the all-time Wood River career scoring record of Kristi Toussaint, 85 goals. And Martinez was just starting her full game of battling for balls in the midfield and setting the Wood River offense in full motion.
On only their second shot of the game, the Bruins made a statement that they weren't going away when lightning-fast Madi Worst got behind the defense and pounded a rising 40-yard shot over Hailey goalkeeper Madison Gove (7 saves).
Despite the strong work of Twin Falls defenders like Anne Kent and Stephanie Peck, Wood River snuck a huge goal into the net just before the half. Megan Morrell started the play from midfield, Ellen Davis fought through two defenders and Hesteness, showing poise in the open field, calmly left-footed home her seventh goal.
The second half started ominously when goalkeeper Gove had to make a great save on Anne Kent's free kick 10 minutes into the stanza.
One minute later, the Bruins cut their deficit to 3-2 on McKenzie Johnson's perfectly aimed cannon after a Worst pass. Right on the heels at 59 minutes, Claire Goss, who scored twice in her team's 3-2 win over Century, got behind the defense and made it 3-3. Erin Grubbs-Imhoff assisted.
"We seem to be a second-half team," said Twin Falls coach Kauffman. "Today was the first day in a while our whole defense has been out there together, and they played well."
Still, the Wood River defense led by Sloan Storey, Maddie Bates, Lucy Paisley, Appleton and Taylor Hayes was also relentless in pursuing balls and allowing nothing but perfectly struck balls to sneak into the Hailey net. Up front, Dredge narrowly missed breaking through, time after time, despite being double-teamed.
The officials and coaches agreed to play out both 10-minute overtime periods instead of going to a "sudden death," golden goal format that Idaho High School Activities Association rules stipulate for district and state playoff action.
Wood River players and supporters breathed a sigh of relief when Gove made two excellent saves off of dangerous Anne Kent kicks in the first two minutes of overtime.
At the other end, Twin Falls keeper J. Johnson (10 saves) made a miraculous save off of a Hesteness volley.
Then, the winning scenario unfolded. It started with a throw-in by Ellen Davis, to Hesteness. She quickly crossed a pass that Appleton collected and fired a shot on goal. The shot was saved, then juggled, and Appleton kept plugging away and pounded it home.
Hesteness said, "I got the throw-in from Ellen at my feet and saw Ali running on the left, going toward the goal. I crossed it over, hip high to make sure she got it. And she finished. She stuck the ball in the net."
Wood River dominated the second 10-minute overtime against a Twin Falls team that lost some of its steam after Worst went down and stayed down after a fair collision with Wolverine defender Paisley.
Saturday on "Senior Night," Wood River unleashed 34 shots and romped 13-0 over Minico in Hailey. Martinez (3 assists) scored a three-goal hat trick for the winners. Wood River's other top scorers, Dredge (1 assist) and Teagen Palmer (2 assists), each tallied two.
Goalkeeper Gove came up the field late in the game and scored her first goal.
It was 8-0 at half. Here is first-half scoring: Dredge (from Martinez) at 7:37, Martinez (Paisley) 13:05, Dredge (unassisted) at 17:30, Hesteness (Dredge) 18:40, Kelly Chapman (Morrell) 21:48, Martinez (Palmer) 28:25, Martinez (Palmer) 31:26 and Palmer (Nicole Roos) at 35:28.
Second-half scoring: Davis (unassisted) 50:26, Palmer (Martinez) 57:30, Maddie-Kate Currie (Martinez) 69:10, Morrell (Bates) 74:50 and Gove (unassisted) at 76:50.
WOLVERINE NOTES—Tuesday's Boise-area tournament semi-final games, with the winners making state, matched Skyview (14-2-1) vs. Kuna (12-3-2), and Bishop Kelly (17-0-1) vs. Middleton (6-7-4).....Wood River's last OT game was a 2-1 shootout loss to The Community School in 2002. The last Wolverine OT win was 3-2 over Kuna in the 1996 State A-2 consolation final at Payette.
Wood River senior Maddie-Kate Currie outruns Minico’s Araciel Santana during Saturday’s Great Basin Conference tournament game won by the Wolverines 13-0 at South Valley Sports Complex soccer field in Hailey.
