With third state title, Rocky Mountain girls soccer achieves an Idaho first
No 5A boys or girls soccer team has ever won three straight state titles.
Until now.
The Rocky Mountain High School girls soccer team secured its place in history Tuesday, topping Boise 2-1 at Middleton High to clinch an unprecedented third straight championship in Idaho’s largest classification.
“Our goal was to leave our imprint here,” Rocky Mountain senior Kelsey Oyler said. “We’re leaving, obviously. That we got to go out and make history doing it made it so much better.”
That history-making season required the Grizzlies (15-1-0) to clear a host of hurdles, most of them off the field.
The global coronavirus pandemic put the season in doubt several times. It started late as community spread remained high in August. The 5A Southern Idaho Conference split into two groups. Then a Rocky Mountain player tested positive for the coronavirus during the district tournament.
That sent five players into quarantine for the district finals, and then the entire team went into lockdown for the week leading up to the state tournament. Central District Health eventually cleared the Grizzlies, Rocky Mountain coach Donal Kaehler said. And they made the most of it.
But Rocky Mountain had one more gray-hair-inducing moment for its coach. Three senior starters — goalkeeper Kasey Wardle, midfielder Brynn McGarvey and forward Larissa Wegner — showed up 25 minutes late for warmups before the state championship.
Kaehler benched all three for the opening 20 minutes Monday. Wegner said they got off to a late start then got stuck in traffic. But she made up for it in the 33rd minute, one-timing a cross from Kaitlyn Slocum out of the air for the game-winning goal.
“Donal was not happy,” Wegner joked.
“But it worked out,” Oyler fired back. “He’s happy now.”
“I think it makes up for it pretty good,” Wegner added with a laugh.
Nadia Kincaid put a depleted Rocky Mountain lineup on the board in the 2nd minute, pouncing on a weak cross and firing a shot over Boise goalkeeper Sophia Hills’ hands.
Boise (13-1-0) tied the game in the 11th minute as Madeline Colborn converted a penalty kick. But Wardle entered in the 20th minute and made three saves to keep Boise off the scoreboard the rest of the way.
Rocky Mountain stormed the field as the final buzzer rang, aware of how close their quest for history came to falling apart.
Kaehler said Central District Health warned him it was unlikely to clear the Grizzlies for the state tournament. The team couldn’t practice for a week. Sharing a bus to Coeur d’Alene was out of the question. So parents had to drive their own players to North Idaho.
“They had to go up individually,” Kaehler said. “They had to stay with their parents in individual rooms. They had to eat individually. They could not have anything to do with each other until they were on the field.”
But the go-ahead from Central District Health finally arrived, and the time off didn’t slow down the Grizzlies as they routed Madison 12-0 in the first round of the state tournament.
Another curveball — an October snowstorm — then forced the semifinals to Middleton on Monday. But Rocky Mountain responded once again with a 3-1 win over Timberline.
Oyler said all the experience on the Grizzlies’ sideline allowed them to survive the week in quarantine and all of the season’s ups and downs. Nine players, including six seniors, have suited up for all three state championship teams.
Rocky Mountain topped Boise in all three state championship games. This was the first one not decided in penalty kicks.
“It does help that we’ve been with each other for three years now,” Oyler said. “We all know how to play with each other. So it’s not like us losing a practice is affecting us a ton.”
Kaehler said he knew he had a special group on his hands three years ago when the current seniors and juniors joined the program. Many faced pressure to play for their club teams to get in front of college scouts. But he said they all wanted to play at Rocky Mountain and leave a mark.
Consider that mission accomplished.
“Winning three in a row?” Kaehler said. “Good heavens. That’s not a bad record to go out on.”
Highland 3, Timberline 2: The Wolves (9-5-0) fell in the third-place game at Canyon Ridge High in Twin Falls. No details were reported.
This story was originally published October 27, 2020 at 11:50 PM.
