Bulldog girls take district title with win over Moscow

SANDPOINT — The District I-II championship game has been an obstacle that the Sandpoint girls soccer team has struggled to overcome for a couple years now.

Though with Thursday night’s 1-0 home win over the Moscow Bears, those previous setbacks are now a distant memory.

“I’m feeling relieved, if i’m being totally honest. It was a bit nervy toward the end,” Sandpoint head coach Conor Baranski said.

The Bulldog girls controlled much of the play in the first half by keeping up the pressure on the Bears and not allowing them many opportunities to exit their zone.

This significant offensive zone presence generated numerous scoring opportunities that kept the Moscow goalie on her toes.

This constant pressure would carry over into the second half for Sandpoint as well and lead to the first and only goal of the game at the 45 minute mark by Marlee McCrumb, assisted by Ava Glahe.

“She had a major turnaround,” Baranski said. “It was against Lakeland that she, all of a sudden, was a different player and she’s been a different player ever since, in a good way. She’s upped her level. She immediately became one of our go-to players. I’m really stoked that she got the game-winning, district championship goal.”

Moscow would attempt to respond by making numerous pushes, including a last minute shot that nearly tied everything up, but the Bulldog’s defense kept their composure.

The number of high-danger scoring chances was kept to a minimum by keeping Moscow largely to the perimeter of their defensive zone.

The ones that did get through, goalie Lilliana Brinkmeier was there to bail her team out.

District Championship now in hand, Baranski was proud of his team and how they handled the immense stress that comes with such an important game.

“I try to take some of the pressure off of our players (before the game) ... but we have a lot of history of success in this program, so I think the players put a lot of pressure on themselves to get to state,” he said. “They were feeling the pressure, so the fact that they were able to overcome it, get a good goal, keep the shut out- I’m really happy for them.”