Valkyries making progress on the soccer field
The Bigfork girls soccer team has yet to win a game this season, but the Valkyries are showing improvement.
During a home game last Tuesday, Sept. 6 the Bigfork girls scored their first goal of the season during what was ultimately a 2-1 loss to Stillwater Christian.
The score sat at zero for both teams until the 46th minute when Stillwater’s Heather Bach put in a goal assisted by McKenzie Hemp. Bigfork’s Emily Stephens tied the game up for Bigfork with the Vals’ inaugural goal of the season in the 52nd minute with an assist by Miranda Miller. Stillwater put in its game-winning goal at the 72nd minute, which Hemp was responsible for.
“It was a good game. It was an interesting, exiting game,” said Bigfork head girls soccer coach Charlie Appleby. “I wish we would have won it, but that’s how that goes. I felt like some things started to click for them. They were able to hold the ball down on the other end for awhile, and that shows something for when we have games down the road and our ability to be able to create scoring opportunities. It was a good game considering it was a nonconference game in the same week of a conference game. They played hard.”
Bigfork took 14 shots on the goal that game to Stillwater’s four. Valkyrie goalkeeper Jazzmyn Musser had two saves. Janelle Falk was credited with 10 saves for Stillwater.
Two days later the Vals traveled to Whitefish, where they were dealt a 7-0 loss. The Lady Bulldogs led 3-0 at the half after scoring in the 12th, 14th and 17th minute.
“It’s actually one of the best games that we’ve had in Whitefish since I started coaching,” Appleby said. “We played really hard. We gave up three hard-fought goals in the first half. Then in the second half, we were playing without three of our starters, but that was good to see the other girls step up and take on new positions. I left Whitefish happy. Well, as happy as you can be with a 7-0 loss.”
The three starters Appleby was missing were Emily Stephens, Sara Keenan and Danielle Keeler. Stephens became ill during the game, Keenan severally injured her nose with a ball to the face and Keeler had a bruised leg bone from the Stillwater game.
For the first time since their game schedule started Aug. 30, the Vals are in the midst of a continuous stretch without games giving them some much-needed practice time.
“This has been a great week already just having Monday,” Appleby said Tuesday afternoon. “I could actually practice them on Monday. We had such a good practice.”
Bigfork’s busy game schedule has left little time for Appleby to work with his team on areas he’s noticed need improving during competition.
“We’re working on being able to transfer the ball from defense to offense a little more smoothly so we can get our offense going,” Appleby said. “We have a really solid defense, but we need to get our offense on track. We’re also working on conditioning. We haven’t been able to do that since two-a-days ended. We’re also focusing on some little things that I’ve been seeing like making sure we’re passing to the right person.”
The Vals play in a 3:30 p.m. game in Columbia Falls against the Wildkats on Friday and then host Libby at noon on Saturday at Carlyle Johnson Field.
“I’m excited to go to Columbia Falls and see how much we’ve progressed since we played them a couple of weeks ago,” Appleby said. “I know that we have improved, and I know they have too, but it will just be good to see how we do against them. Also, we have a new conference foe in Libby that we haven’t played yet, so I’m excited to see how we stack up against them as well.”