Thompson Falls girls soccer battles Polson
As newcomers to the world of Montana high school, varsity soccer, the Thompson Falls boys’ and girls’ teams are in the “curve”.
The learning curve, that is.
“We lost 4-0 but we continue to show improvement in our team structures and our mentalities”, said girls head coach Nicholas Lawyer, referring to the Lady Hawks performance in Livingston this past Saturday.
“On an incredibly hot, humid and stale day in Livingston we kept up with the Rangers the whole game, conceding two goals in the first half and two goals in the second” Lawyer added. “Goal tenders Ava Lawyer and Callie McGillis both had several saves against a very dangerous team”.
Earlier in the week, T Falls, which is in its first-ever year of high school soccer competition, took on Polson in Thompson Falls and lost 9-4.
The Polson game saw the Lady Pirates net six goals in the first half, while T Falls had three, including their first goals of the season and in the new team’s history. The Pirates had three quick goals in the first ten minutes of the game.
Polson added three more goals in the second half, while holding T Falls to a single score.
Finding the net for T Falls were Catherine Wrobleski, who had two goals on the day along with two assists, Lawyer, one goal, and a goal and assist by Savannah Costner. Solveig Nygaard added an assist for the Lady Hawks.
“We got a little tired and Polson found some space in front of our box, scoring a couple quick goals to put the game out of reach,” Lawyer said. “It was a huge improvement from our game against Lone Peak last Saturday, we had better intensity and were much more front-footed".
In the game against Livingston, Lawyer credited Livingston’s “relentless attack” for their win over the Lady Hawks.
“Livingston attacked relentlessly down our left side and delivered cross after cross into the far side of the box”, he said. “We will have to work on dealing with those kinds of delivery moments”.
The T Falls boys, meanwhile, took on the same two opponents and were shut out twice.
They fell 3-0 to Polson at home, then were beaten 8-0 by Livingston. The losses dropped the Blue Hawks to 0-2-1 on the year. The Hawks opened the season with a 1-1 tie against a tough Lone Peak squad.
Up next for both T Falls teams travel to Libby this Thursday (Sept 12) for their conference openers against the Loggers. They return home to Previs Field in Thompson Falls this Saturday (Sept 14) for a pair of matches versus Columbia Falls.