Similar fates awaited the Wood River and The Community School girls' teams on opening day of their respective state soccer tournaments in Caldwell on Thursday.
Great Basin Conference champion Wolverines fell to Kuna (16-4-2) 2-1 in the 4A tournament, after losing a pair of senior starters to injury in the second half.
Physical Payette (11-4-2) outmuscled the High Desert champion Cutthroats 4-0 in the 3A tilt.
The best the local squads can hope for is a win today to earn the right to play in consolation championships Saturday.
This morning, Wood River (15-3-1) meets a familiar foe in Century (17-3-1). The Diamondbacks handed the Wolverines a 2-1 loss back on Aug. 27, the last time Wood River came out on the short side of a score prior to yesterday's result. Today's match will take place at Brother's Park at 11 a.m.
On the pitch at the same time at Vallivue High School will be The Community School (13-5-2) versus Teton. Orofino topped the Redskins 2-0 to send Teton to the left side of the bracket.
Today's loser-bracket winners meet in consolation championships at 9:30 a.m. Saturday. The losers go home in the double-elimination format.
Wood River
The Wolverines and Kuna went tit-for-tat in the first half, which was tied 1-1 at halftime. Kuna's Jessica Higer slotted the game's opening goal, but Hailey's Teagan Palmer answered, converting a pass by Erin Murphy.
In the second half, Kuna held a narrow 6-4 shot advantage (five saves for WR keeper Maddie Gove), but capitalized on a free kick awarded in the game's 58th minute after Higer was taken down outside the box. Junior sweeper Tori Aksamit went top shelf on what turned out to be the game-winning goal. From then on, Kuna went into defensive mode, and with Aksamit's speed and aggressiveness were able to keep the Wolverines on the perimeter. Wood River had a difficult time countering after leading scorer Tanner Dredge (32 goals) left the field with an ankle injury as the result of a collision with Aksamit at the 54-minute mark and senior co-captain Ashley Hesteness left with a tweaked back (70-minute mark). Wood River's best opportunity came at the 61-minute mark. Palmer collected the ball on a well-executed buildup by midfielder Megan Morrell and Murphy, but the well-struck shot was just a little bit high.
First-year coach Jenni Conrad was understandably disappointed after the match.
"It was a tough loss for us," she said. "We have not lost for a long time. Our timing was a little off early on and just when we started to get our rhythm together, Tanner went down."
In 2008, Wood River claimed the consolation championship, beating Century 5-0.
In the boys' 4A contest, #2 Bonneville upset #1 Jerome in overtime, 3-2. The Tigers finished third at state in 2008.
The Community School
Speed not only thrills, it kills, and while The Community School girls matched Payette stride-for-stride up front, the Pirates' quick-footed midfield proved to be the difference in a 4-0 victory.
The Cutthroats struck first when freshmen Ellie Swanson's shot clanged off the crossbar one minute into the game. Payette broke the deadlock with three minutes remaining in the first half on a free kick by junior Hailey Gross, though the team dominated, launching 13 shots to the Cutthroats' three. Sun Valley keeper Josie Bunce came up with 10 crucial saves.
"Josie played great for us. She made a lot of saves," coach Kelly Feldman said.
In the second stanza, Payette converted at the six-minute mark and tacked on two more goals when Feldman went to a three-back alignment and pushed Kelly Hennessy up to midfield to try and generate more offense.
Last year at state, the Cutthroats went two and out, but are hoping to stick around until Saturday with a victory over Teton today.
