Dogs to play for state title
There were no knockout punches in this
heavyweight match.
Whitefish used a relentless offensive
attack at Frenchtown to rack up five goals, and managed to outlast
the Broncs potent front line 5-4 on Saturday in the Class A state
semifinal boys soccer match. The victory puts the Bulldogs in the
championship game this Saturday when they host Northern A foe
Polson.
It’s the fifth time in nine seasons the
Dogs have made the finals. Their last trip was in 2009.
The game at No. 2 seed Frenchtown was
back and forth from the first whistle.
“Frenchtown was a roller coaster, a lot
of up and down,” Whitefish coach O’Brien Byrd said.
Whitefish junior midfielder Sean Janni
noted the close game afterward.
“Frenchtown was tough and they gave us
a run for it,” he said. “We haven’t won a title game in a few
years. We’re going to try our best to get one this year.”
Whitefish sophomore Jon Dittman hit the
net first with a goal off a corner kick in the fourth minute.
“We started gangbusters,” Byrd said.
“We have been working on this corner kick play all year and it
finally paid off. It couldn’t have been a better start.”
Frenchtown’s top scorer, Manuel
Terrazas, hit back in the 11th minute to tie it up.
“We struggled to contain that guy,”
Byrd said.
At the 20th minute, Elior Rossi put a
shot on frame that slipped through the hands of the Broncs’ keeper
in rainy conditions. Sam Donaldson cleaned up the loose ball in
front of the net for his first goal.
Donaldson cleaned up another shot
attempt in the 31st minute.
The play of the game came when
Whitefish keeper Thomas Clark stuffed Terrazas’ penalty kick chance
to keep Whitefish’s 3-1 edge going into the half.
“That save was big,” Byrd said. “That
could have been the game changer.”
The Broncs responded quickly out of the
break when Terrazas scored again on a fastbreak chance. Byrd then
made a roster rotation to keep Terrazas in check. He moved Rossi to
midfield and put Curran Edland up front.
“Elior was magic,” Byrd said, “and we
got to use Curran’s skill and vision up front. That shift was key
to eking out the win.”
Donaldson capped his hat trick on a
penalty kick in the 71st minute.
Three minutes later, Terrazas sneaked
in another goal when he lobbed a shot over the Bulldogs’
defense.
With the score 4-3, Janni sealed the
victory when he blasted a free kick from the left half of the pitch
and 25 yards out. The kick that was meant to be a cross sailed over
the keeper’s reach and into the corner of the net.
“Coach was telling me to bend it in,
and I bent it in on accident,” Janni said.
“You need a little bit of luck in a
game like that,” Byrd said.
Frenchtown added another goal in the
80th minute, but time ran out before there was a chance to even the
score.
“At the end we were totally overjoyed,”
Byrd said. “It was more of a feeling of survival. I’m proud of the
boys, they got it done.”
Whitefish 3 2 - 5
Frenchtown 1 3 - 4
W - Jon Dittman (assist Matty McCrone),
4:00
F - Manuel Terrazas, Igor Chinikaylo,
11:00
W - Sam Donaldson, Curran Edland,
20:00
W - Donaldson, Elior Rossi, 31:00
F - Terrazas, 49:00
W - Donaldson, Rossi, 71:00
F - Terrazas, Tristan Baker, 74:00
W - Sean Janni, Nathan Boone, 78:00
F - Rodrigo Gama, Michael Rebarchik,
80:00
Shots - Whitefish 16, Frenchtown 6.
Saves - Whitefish 7 (Thomas Clark), Frenchtown 14 (Blake Warnall).
Corner kicks - Whitefish 9, Frenchtown 6. Total fouls - Whitefish
12, Frenchtown 8. Yellow cards - Frenchtown 2. Red cards -
none.