Playoff-bound

CHARLO — There are pennants races going on in major league baseball in October and there will be one heck of a race going in the Northwestern A boys soccer standings.

The Polson Pirates got a huge boost on Tuesday night when the Whitefish soccer team defeated Bigfork 7-0. That ensures that Bigfork can’t get nine points to catch Polson for the third and final playoff spot in the conference standings.

In other words, break out the bubbly.

“It’s going to be a hard battle to sort out the top three seeds,” Polson head coach Jess Kittle said.

The Pirates (2-0-1, conf., 2-3-1 overall) put themselves in a good position after defeating Bigfork 6-0 last Thursday on the road. Both senior Sean Hart and sophomore James Larson scored goals on their birthdays. Hart scored two, one in just the second minute and one in the 60th minute.

Junior Girogio Traini and senior Marcus Corley scored their first goals of their varsity careers. Bigfork also scored on their own goal in the 32nd minute.

“Marcus and Sean both had header goals in this game, it was really great to see us taking advantage of being first to the ball in the air and directing it on this goal,”  Kittle said.

Polson outshot Bigfork 18 to five, and had 13 corner kicks to their three. The Pirates have still just allowed one goal in conference play through three games.

“We’re right where we want to be,” Kittle said of his team’s progress in the season. “For the last two years we’ve been on the outside looking in. Now we could be looking at a high seed.” 

Polson will host Columbia Falls tonight at 5 p.m.