Postseason run short-lived for Polson girls

BILLINGS — Polson’s girls soccer team had a short-lived playoff run, falling 5-0 to Billings Central in a first-round game on Saturday.

The Rams have won the past five Class A state championships.

Polson had the first scoring opportunity of the match in the first five minutes as Sarah Howell hit Tiara Duford on a breakaway. Duford would have netted a goal if not for a sliding save by Rams’ keeper Natalie Ruegsegger.

“It was one of those perfect balls that comes up and Tiara’s got a whole lot of speed,” Polson coach Michael Hewston said. “It was everything that it needed to be. It just didn’t go in.”

Howell, the Pirates leading scorer this season, missed later off the crossbar in what was Polson’s second-best scoring opportunity of the match. Hewston mentioned that Keely Clairmont and Kyrie Bitterman managed good looks on breakaways later in the match as well.

After a slow start, the undefeated Rams scored in the 20th minute and never looked back. Five different girls scored for Billings Central.

“It was like nothing that the [Polson] girls had ever seen,” Hewston said. “We pretty much were on our heels just trying to stay alive.”

The fifth-year coach was happy with his team’s effort, however.

“They hung in there. They played well,” he said. “[They] played the game that they could for 80 minutes.”

He was happy with the defensive effort, as well. Freshman keeper Jenna Evertz snagged 19 saves.

Hewston said the blowout loss won’t turn the whole season sour for him. The Pirates managed their first winning conference record (4-3-1) in his five-year term as coach. They finished 6-6-1 overall.

On a team that started three juniors and four freshmen, Hewston said the experience was well worth the trip to Billings.

“It was good for them to see this level of competition,” he said. “I see us doing nothing but getting better over the next four years. … We will no doubt see [Billings Central] again.”

With yet another large freshman class coming up next year, he hopes to install a junior varsity team for the first time in school history, a big step in the maturation of a resurgent Polson soccer program.

Hewston said he would be submitting a formal application to Athletic Director Scott Wilson to establish the program in the upcoming week.