• Host Rock Springs this Saturday for crucial regional seeding
It was a very busy stretch for the local soccer teams as they played five matches in seven days, culminating with a road match in Evanston this past Thursday and a home match against Riverton this past Saturday.
For the Braves, they ended that stretch with a tie and a win as they finished in a 1-1 score on the road against the Devils and then handled Riverton on the home pitch with a 3-1 final. Max Matijczyk scored the Star Valley goal in the effort.
“We talked about some goals at the beginning of the season and there are some things we wished had gone different in terms of wins and losses but they are continuing to persevere and we ended last week on a good win,” answered Coach Trevor Spencer. “We had been a little disappointed with the tie at Evanston and had a lot of scoring chances. But we were glad to have a good game and pick up the win against Riverton.”
The match against the Wolverines was fairly one-sided in favor of Star Valley as the Braves outshot Riverton 24-14 and rolled up eight corner kicks.
The first goal came in the 30th minute from sophomore Jacob Howe who leads the team in scoring. Just two minutes later, Mitijczyk was mowed over in the box and capitalized on penalty kick to make the score 2-0 Star Valley at the half.
The Braves back line has been very solid through a challenging stretch and they turned away the bulk of the Wolverine shots on goal in the second half until Carson Trujillo found the net in the 76th minute to cut the score 2-1. The anxiety was short-lived however, as Howe netted his second goal of the game just a minute late to slam the door on Star Valley’s second win of the season.
The win is important not just for morale, but also gives the Braves a good opportunity to defeat the Rock Springs Tigers this Saturday in the regular-season finale and move up the standings heading into the the 4A West Regionals. Star Valley will face off against juggernaut Jackson on Thursday before hosting the Tigers this weekend with a 1 p.m. start time.
The Lady Braves continue to work through a tough season in terms of wins and losses as they lost in Evanston and on the home turf to Riverton by identical 6-0 scores. Coach Jessica Bagley highlighted the team’s first goal of the season came during this stretch in the final moments against Kelly Walsh.
“This past week has been a tough one,” she replied. “We were very excited to get a goal against KW off of a corner kick. We have never had so many offensive opportunities against them until this game. We fought hard in spite of tired bodies. Had a rough day at Evanston. The highlight was we put the freshman in the back line the last 14 minutes of that game, Sadie Sloan, Paisley Hollingsworth, Bintli Hoopes, Emma Daniel, Hadlee Frome, all freshman, they did not let Evanston score on them. They were a good cohesive unit.”
Against Riverton, the Wolverines got four goals from Timbree Mathill who collected a first-half hat-trick. Cilia Mejorado and Karen Vosika scored the other two goals for the visitors. Wendy Ponce turned away 13 shots from her keeper position against 31 shots on goal. The Lady Braves finished with six shots on goal and forced two saves.
Bagley noted the upcoming players in the program.
“We are very excited about our JV team,” she added. “They have been one of the best groups collectively and have come off with a couple of wins. Silver Weber holds eight goals for JV followed by 6 others holding a single goal. Kyle Terry is a great asset to our program and we see great growth each year, and we are just so excited.”
The Lady Braves face top-ranked Jackson on Thursday in Teton County and then host Rock Springs on Saturday with an 11 a.m. start time.
