The Star Valley Soccer teams hit the pitch once again for the 4th time in less than a week as the week of make-up games rages on, this time battling the Natrona Mustangs and Fillies on their home field. The first time the boys met up with Natrona this season it was a tightly contested battle that ended 2-1 in Star Valley’s favor in overtime and when the girls last took on the Fillies it was not quite as close with the girls falling 10-0 to one of the top 5 ranked girls soccer programs in the 4A.
The boys starting things off today and played a fast paced game right from the jump and spending significantly more time in the offensive zone against Natrona than they were able to muster against the Jackson Broncs back on Wednesday which was a good bounce back game to see for the Braves faithful. Unfortunately Zach Hawley decided to get off the bus having seemingly become 10 feet tall and 10 feet wide at least as far as the Star Valley forwards could tell the way he managed to get his mits on every single shot on goal the Braves got off all day.
The Braves were only out-shot from a legitimate shot attempt perspective 15-11 which is relatively close and managed to get 5 of them on-frame meaning they either went in or had to be saved, where as Natrona got 10 of theirs to hit on frame, the biggest difference was of the 5 Star Valley got as a quality shot attempt all 5 of them were reeled in by the Mustang net minder. Tayt Lawson himself had a really nice game in goal as well, not quite the shut out but did make 8 saves on the day which is well above the state average per game for any goalie and only allowed 2 to go in which is a very solid ratio for a high school soccer game but ultimately did give the Mustangs their revenge over the Braves with the 2-0 victory.
The girls didn’t claim victory either today but did do significantly better than their first outing with the Fillies and held them to 4 goals this time around and Natrona only had 1 at the half, but a combination of bad luck and fatigue kicked in during the 2nd half of the game and allowed the Fillies the chance to put some separation between themselves and the lady Braves. The 1st goal was a header from a corner kick that found it’s way to the netting from the states leading scorer Saige Gustafson which was the perfect re-direct from one of the sports best players in the state of Wyoming which came 28 minutes into the match.
The 2nd half started off with an unfortunate momentum swing right off the bat as the Braves got an odd man rush going within the first minute and a half but after getting a 1 on 1 with goalie Ryan Barthel, the Braves shot ended up in her outstretch fingertips for the save then less than 30 seconds later a misplay by the Braves defensive line gave Gustafson a 1 on 1 with Mikayla Christiansen with Gustafson, as she usually does, won. then but 2 minutes after that Kylan Campbell was awarded a penalty shot for Natrona which Christiansen actually saved but play begins again immediately following the shot and the Star Valley girls looked like they maybe didn’t understand that rule as they stood around after the shot and Campbell simply sprinted up to knock in her own rebound off the PK and it was 3-0 before the Braves could even blink.
Natrona would add a 4th goal later on in the half and ultimately take the contest 4-0 but Christiansen continued her excellent 2023 with another double digit save outing with 12 on this particular day. Gustafson for the Fillies continued her state-best sophomore season adding 2 more points to her total and giving her 30 now on the season and Natrona is presumably going to get 2 more seasons after this one of this type of scoring production, absolutely remarkable for the young forward.
The Braves will be in action first thing in the morning as they take on Kelly Walsh at 10am for the girls and noon for the boys.
