Whitefish girls stay undefeated through tough week on pitch

Last week the Whitefish girls soccer team held on to win over Columbia Falls in their second meeting of the season 2-1 at the Columbia Falls Flip Darling Memorial Field. Just two days later the Bulldogs traveled to Libby and scrambled to a 1-1 draw with the Loggers.

It was a week of battling illness, injury and poor training sessions says Whitefish head coach Roland Benedict. Though several players were sick or injured throughout the week, the coach expressed the team did not play up to its standards.

“We were pretty banged up, but it’s not an excuse to play to the standard that we played at,” Benedict said.

Despite the performance, Whitefish is still undefeated this season with a record of 9-0-1.

Against Columbia Falls, the Lady Bulldogs got off to a quick start with a goal by Whitefish’s leading goal scorer Olivia Genovese in the 15th minute. The girls would add another goal just before halftime in the 35th minute when Maeve Ingelfinger found the back of the net off a nice assist from Brooke Roberts. Whitefish carried a 2-0 lead into the break.

The second half was less than stellar for the Bulldogs who allowed Columbia Falls to gain momentum and have several scoring chances. The Wildkats scored in the 78th minute when Hope McAtee snuck one past Whitefish keeper Norah Schmidt. Time ran out before the Kats could find the equalizer.

“The second half was a different soccer team, we came out completely backward,” Benedict expressed. “CFalls worked hard and they pressed us, but it's nothing new, it’s nothing that we haven’t seen in terms of energy and effort wise from Bigfork or Columbia Falls in the first game or the first half. So to fold like that was really disappointing from our group.”

Though Whitefish collected the win, Columbia Falls had more shots with 14 while the Bulldogs had 11. Each keeper made nine saves. Delaney Smith and Roberts recorded assists in the game.

In the two teams’ first meeting two weeks ago, Whitefish won 4-0.

Whitefish then played Libby on Saturday and finished in a 1-1 tie. Benedict said the coaching staff and the team was unhappy with the performance.

“It was a horrendous performance… the team knows how we did,” Benedict said.

There were no stats available from the game. In the first meeting of the season between the two teams in mid-September, Whitefish won over the Loggers 10-0.

This week is the final bout of Class A soccer matches. Whitefish was set to face Bigfork on Tuesday after press time and will play Polson for Senior Night on Thursday at Smith Fields at 5 p.m.

“The team is going to have to show up prepared to play, learn, train with a high level of intensity as they have in the past,” Benedict said of the last week of the regular season. “With two games left… it’s going to be up to them to come out and perform.”

Whitefish 2 0 - 0

Columbia Falls 0 1 - 1

WF - Olivia Genovese (Delaney Smith) 15:00

WF - Maeve Ingelfinger (Brooke Roberts) 35:00

CF - Hope McAtee 78:00

Shots - WF 11, CF 14; Goalie saves – WF 9 (Norah Schmidt), CF 9 (Zoey Byrd); Corner kicks – WF 4, CF 4.