Sandpoint soars to a seventh straight state berth

SANDPOINT — Third times a charm, right?

Well not for Moscow as they fell to Sandpoint girls soccer for the third time this season Wednesday, allowing the Bulldogs to claim their seventh straight 4A Region 1 championship.

Fans screamed and the players on the Bulldogs bench ran on the field as the final whistle blew to end the game and give Sandpoint the 3-0 win and a trip to the 4A state tournament next week.

The girls celebrated by raising the regional trophy over their heads as parents and fans gathered to take pictures of the moment.

Conor Baranski has been Sandpoint’s head coach since 2012 and every year except his first he has guided the Bulldogs to a regional championship and a state berth. Wednesday’s victory just added to what has become part of an annual tradition for the Bulldogs.

“It has become an expectation and I think that’s good,” Baranski said. “We’re promoting a winning culture. I liked to think that we as coaches really push process over results, but this is the result of hard work, determination and a winning culture. We expect to be here, we expect to be doing well and we expect to be pushing for titles.”

Despite the continued success, Baranski said the team will enjoy this win.

“It feels like an accomplishment to keep doing it year after year after year,” he said. “To stay on top as everybody knows is hard to do. I think we always get Lakeland and Moscow’s best games because they want to knock the queen off of her tower.”

In the first half, it was apparent how badly the Bulldogs wanted the title and the state berth. Sandpoint was attacking the Moscow defense early and narrowly missing on passes to players making runs that would have created scoring chances. In the sixth minute, junior forward Jordie Breeden got a free kick from about 25 yards out and sent the ball just over the top of the Moscow net.

Two minutes later, sophomore midfielder Piper Frank sent a pass to sophomore forward Kylie Williams who dribbled the ball inside the left side of the penalty box, created some space and fired a shot through a handful of players blocking the view of the Moscow goalkeeper into the back of the net.

Sandpoint didn’t let up after scoring the opening goal and kept its foot on the gas as the Bears scrambled to keep the ball from hitting the back of the net again.

In the 17th minute, Breeden sent a cross in from the left side that curled in and pinged off the right post and out. The Bears goalkeeper quickly grabbed the ball and covered it up to prevent the Bulldogs from getting to it.

A minute later, senior forward Emi Lynch drove down the right side and nearly lost the ball out of bounds, but she kept it in and passed the ball toward the middle of the field where senior midfielder Hannah Eddy was. Eddy fed a pass to Breeden inside the box and Breeden did the rest, burying a shot in the bottom left.

Most teams get complacent and start to slow down when they build a 2-0 lead, but the Bulldogs didn’t and in the 32nd minute somehow, someway the ball didn’t find the back of the net again. In a span of 30 seconds, Eddy blasted a shot of the crossbar, Breeden sent a shot off the hands of the Moscow goalkeeper and sophomore Kylie Burnett scorched a ball from outside the 18-yard box on net.

The Bulldogs had 14 shots on goal in the first half as they went to the break with a 2-0 lead.

At halftime, both coaches preached to their teams how important the next goal was.

“If you get the first one, the next ones are coming,” Moscow head coach Joshua Davis told his team.

And the Bears certainly came out with an elevated level of intensity in the second half after hardly possessing the ball in the opening 40 minutes.

Moscow was pushing players forward and the coaches and Bears on the bench were screaming nearly every time they touched the ball, hoping to give their team some momentum and energy.

For a while it worked as the Bears started to attack the Sandpoint end of the field, but then in the 62nd minute Eddy put it all to a halt. Eddy got the ball around midfield and drove all the way inside the penalty box and sent a ball over the top of the Moscow goalkeeper to make it 3-0.

“[Eddy] really made that goal happen before getting the ball, dribbling it from half line and going and scoring,” Baranski said. “It was just her effort, her composure and her consistency throughout that game and just in practice the other day she did the exact same thing.”

Now the Bulldogs will wait to see who they will play at the state tournament that starts Thursday, Oct. 24 at Brothers Park in Caldwell.

Sandpoint has made it to the state championship match each of the last three years and lost all of them to bitter rival Bishop Kelly.

The Bulldogs will look to rewrite history next week and Baranski likes his teams chances.

“We can win state, absolutely,” he said. “On any given day, I have full confidence that we can beat any team.”

First half — 1, Sandpoint, Kylie Williams (Piper Frank), 18:00. 2, Sandpoint, Jordie Breeden (Hannah Eddy), 18:00.

Second half — 3, Sandpoint, Hannah Eddy (unassisted), 62:00.

Shots on goal — Sandpoint 18, Moscow 4.

Saves — Sandpoint, Hattie Larson, 2, Moscow, Chloe Baker, 11.