Polson boys' soccer team ends season in quarterfinal playoff

Polson's Jaben Wenzel jumps up to hit the ball with his head as a Billings Central defender and teammate Danny DiGiallonardo look on.

Polson's Alex Encizo fights for possession for the ball with a Billings Central player on Saturday afternoon.

Polson's Russell Smith jumps to make a save on Saturday afternoon against Billings Central.

by John Heglie Special For Leader
| October 22, 2015 10:55 AM

Polson's Alex Encizo fights for possession for the ball with a Billings Central player on Saturday afternoon.

Polson's Russell Smith jumps to make a save on Saturday afternoon against Billings Central.

At Polson during the State A quarterfinal match, the visiting (2E) Rams dictated the tempo of the first half of play with an exhibition of superb ball control which they parlayed into a 2-0 lead at intermission.

The host Pirates made some adjustments at halftime and accelerated their offense to a more up-tempo pace during the second half with the result that created several viable scoring opportunities. Two promising attacks took place early into the final period, but both were negated by an offside ruling.

One of the more salient with scoring potential was initiated by Andrew Hanson, who launched a direct kick at the Ram goalkeeper that forced the deflection of the ball over the crossbar to keep it from penetrating the net, to an initial elation of oohs and subsequent dismay of ahhs by the partisan crowd in attendance.

Just past the midpoint of the second period, a pair of Rams penetrated the defensive alignment aimed to protect against encroachment of Polson goal space. Pirate keeper Russ Smith succeeded in deflecting the initial salvo, but the ball remained precariously positioned. Senior defender Jaben Wenzel swooped in from the right side and slide tackle trapped the ball before the Ram striker could get to it. However, the deft defensive display was cited by the officiating crew as exceeding acceptable parameters for intervention strategies, and hence a penalty kick was awarded, bolstering the score to a 3-0 deficit.

Polson pressed down upon the accelerator another notch the final ten minutes which resulted in a flurry of activity. Their second most viable scoring chance unfolded when Connor Lanier launched a missile from about 30 yards out that appeared to have the appropriate descending arc, but just barely carried over the crossbar. Five minutes later, Hanson took a feed from another Pirate as he accelerated toward the Billings Central goal with the crosshairs of his scope fixed upon target and ball locked and loaded. Hanson would be fouled, resulting in a Polson penalty kick taken by Mike Mercer that trimmed the deficit to 3-1. Unfortunately, that was the closest the Pirates would get.

Polson (8-3-2) wraps up a spectacular season and bids adieu to a trio of seniors: defenders Jaben Wenzel, Dylan Cooper and Sutton Kanta. Billings Central advances to face defending champion Corvallis.

Billings Central- 2 1 – 3

Polson- 0 1 – 1

BC – g Josh Bundy (a Zygmond) 8’

BC – g Patrick Comstock (a Wall) 32’

BC – g Nick Mack (pk) 64’

P – g Mike Mercer (pk) 75’

SHOTS(on goal) – BlgsC *10, Polson 8

SAVES – BlgsC 4), Polson 7 (Smith)

PindivSH(sog) – Connor Lanier 2 (hdr34’over, sog69’over), Mercer (sog44’dk), Andrew Hanson 2 (dksog47’GKdefl, 3sog76’GKblk), Alex Encizo 2 (sog76’dk, 2sog76’defdefl), Ben River (1post76’), Michael Vergeront (offsides45’), Danny DiGiallonardo (offsides 61’), pair of Pirates (offsides42’).

BCindivSH(sog) – Wall (sog12’), Bundy (sog22’,76’; sog25’defdefl; wide39’), Comstock (sog30’defdefl, sog65’), Zygmond (sog38’over), Jacob Pankratz (sog58’, wide56’), Camden Elletson (sog64’) unidentified (sog16’). Asterisk (*) denotes data not comprehensive

Mission Valley Christian Academy

MVCA 7, PHS JV 3 (boys)

At Polson, the Mission Valley Christian Academy boys and the Polson Junior Varsity tangled on the turf in an intercommunity scrimmage which yielded community bragging rights as the laurel worn by the victor. Jake Windauer scored a hat trick, Nick Windauer tallied a brace and Lucca Maddy knotted the first goal for MVCA. Scoring for the Polson JV was provided by Alex Mausshardt, Robin Erickson and Xavier Stalkfleet. The MVCA boys squad wraps up their season with a 2-0 record on the year.

MVCA 3 4 – 7

PHSJV 1 2 – 3

MVCA – g Lucca Maddy 9'

PHS JV – g Alex Mausshardt 22'

MVCA – g Jake Windauer (a Brady Shipley) 26'

MVCA – g Nick Windauer 27'

PHS JV – g Robin Erickson (a Noah Volesky) 46'

PHS JV – g Xavier Stalkfleet 49'

MVCA – g Jake Windauer (a Nick Windauer) 54'

MVCA – g Nate Goodrich (a Jake Windauer) 58'

MVCA – g Jake Windauer (a Nick Windauer) 59'

MVCA – g Nick Windauer (a Jake Windauer) 65'

MVCA girls idle – the MVCA girls only squad closed out the season 3-3-1.

MVCA 8, Plains 5 (coed)

At Plains, the visiting MVCA coed team won on the strength of a hat trick by Lucca Maddy, a double brace (2x2goals) by Jake Windauer and a penalty kick by Nick Windauer to capture this contest 8-5.

MVCA 7 1 – 8

Plains 2 3 – 5

MVCA – g Lucca Maddy (a Jake Windauer) 3'

MVCA – g Jake Windauer (a Nick Windauer) 5'

Plains – 2g 6',20'

MVCA – g Lucca Maddy (a Jake Windauer) 13'

MVCA – g Nick Windauer (pk) 22'

MVCA – g Jake Windauer (a Lexie Maddy) 26'

MVCA – g Lucca Maddy (a Keith Erickson) 34'

MVCA – g Jake Windauer 38'

Plains – 3g 65',73',75'

MVCA – g Jake Windauer 76'

Thompson Falls 3, MVCA 1 (coed)

At Plains, the visiting MVCA coed squad took a 1-0 lead early into the first half off a goal scored by Lexie Maddy off an assist dished by Breken Clarke. MVCA was working with a reduced roster due to the attrition of a half dozen players who were unavailable due to scheduling conflicts with other commitments. As a result, the roster was reduced to a dozen players, leaving a single substitute with seven middle school age players providing the bulk of the play on the pitch. As MVCA began to run out of gas, Thompson Falls was able to net the equalizer, then went ahead the final minutes of the game to rally from behind for the win.

MVCA coed finishes out the season 9-1, having outscored their opponents 62-19. Of the 710 minutes played over the course of 10 games, the team trailed a miniscule seven minutes of the season or one percent of the sum duration of their games.

MVCA 1 0 – 1

T Falls 0 3 – 3

MVCA – g Lexie Maddy (a Breken Clarke) 10'

T Falls – 3g 39',70'(pk), 72''

MVCA stats courtesy of Jess Kittle