Slow start dooms Bulldogs in championship game

Knights down Bulldogs as 4A powers meet in title game again

By PAUL LAMBERT

Sports reporter

IDAHO FALLS — For the third time in four seasons, Saturday found Sandpoint and Bishop Kelly sharing the pitch in the 4A state girls soccer championship final.

The Bulldogs (8-6-5) won the first two of those meetings in 2013 and 2014, but the 2016 gold trophy went home with the Knights following a 3-1 win the Idaho Falls Soccer Complex.

Bishop Kelley (22-1) scored three goals over seven minutes early in the first half, making that advantage stand up in an otherwise competitive, skillful match.

“It was a beautiful thing to watch,” Sandpoint coach Conor Baranski said. “I had watched Bishop Kelly play earlier in the tournament and I knew this one would be fun, win or lose.”

Each team had two shots on goal before Bishop Kelly broke through in the 13th minute. BK senior midfielder Emma Mills gathered a through ball on the right side of the penalty box and deftly chipped it up and over for the score.

Four minutes later Bishop Kelley took the first corner kick of the match, and senior forward Cam Coyle corralled a miss off the post, and dinked home a garbage goal to make the score 2-0.

Just two minutes later, Bishop Kelly senior Aubree Chatterton stung a driving liner into the back of the net from 35 yards out, making it 3-0 in the 19th minute.

Despite finding themselves in a sudden and very dark hole, the Bulldogs stuck to the gameplan and continued to make the Knights earn every possession, challenging every 50/50 ball and making attack after attack.

“I wasn’t going to go down without working my hardest. None of us were,” Sandpoint junior midfielder Hadley Marshall said. “They are the best team we played in this tournament by far, and it has been us vs. them it seems like forever in this tournament.”

The 3-0 advantage held up into halftime, despite coach Baranski’s sideline encouragement to “get one, and worry about the rest later.”

“This (second) half is going to take a special effort,” Baranski told his team at the half. “When we get in there and score that one, they are going to start questioning things.”

Sandpoint did get “that one” in the 58th minute when sophomore Yeo Yarnell connected from 25 out, throwing both hands up in a “Y” as she was mobbed by her teammates.

The Bulldogs pressed Bishop Kelly for the remainder of the match, getting near chance after near chance.

The Knights were up to the task, however, getting clear after clear to eat up what was left of the clock.

“I faced them in this game in both my freshman and sophomore seasons, and I didn’t expect anything less than the best from them this year,” Sandpoint senior midfielder Olivia Moore said, noting the bittersweetness of the moment, and her final prep match. “We had what it took to win this one, and we gave it everything, and left it all out on the field.”

Bishop Kelly has now won six 4A titles since 2007 and the Bulldogs have seven state championships since the IDHSAA sanctioned the sport in 2000.