Late Sandpoint goal spells heartbreak for defending champ Bishop Kelly in 4A title game
The Sandpoint High girls soccer team won its ninth 4A state championship since 2000 on Saturday, and it took an improbable run to do it.
In the process, the Bulldogs denied defending champ Bishop Kelly’s quest for an 11th title since 2000.
Sandpoint, which entered the state tournament as the No. 4 seed, knocked off No. 1 Pocatello on Friday to earn the right to play in the final. Playing six hours from home at Middleton High School, the Bulldogs dethroned a Bishop Kelly team that had lost just once all season.
The 2-1 victory, which came in dramatic fashion, gave Sandpoint its first title since 2019.
“In the highest-pressure games, this team always stepped up,” said coach Conor Baranski, adding that the Bulldogs’ confidence was at an all-time high after beating Pocatello 2-1. “The way they played (Friday) just unified every girl on this team. Whether they played 80 minutes or zero, every one of them was focused on helping the team.”
Sandpoint’s Marlee McCrum stepped up in a big spot Saturday. She buried a shot into the net to break a 1-1 tie with just two minutes left in regulation.
Baranski wasn’t surprised when his team didn’t crumble after No. 2 Bishop Kelly tied the game in the second half. He called his team “battle tested.”
“It’s my philosophy that we should play the toughest teams we can in the regular season,” he said. “So we usually come down here with one of the weakest records, but we’ve been through the battles, and we hang our hat on that.”
Sandpoint (11-5-3) led most of the game after Aliya Strock collected a loose ball in front of the Knights’ goal and lobbed a shot over the head of goalie Brooke Hutchinson.
Baranski said he knew the Bulldogs had to be aggressive to try to grab a lead, especially with Bishop Kelly (18-2-1) riding high after a 6-2 win over Twin Falls in the semifinals. He also knew they had to find a way to contain Bishop Kelly’s leading scorer, Sophie Schmautz. The Boise State commit went into the final game of her high school career with 38 goals on the season.
“You can watch one of their games for two minutes and point her out,” Baranski said. “She’s an amazing player, but we have a lot of faith in our defenders, and we’re going to stick to our game plan.”
The Bulldogs double-teamed Schmautz at times with two center backs, but it was Sandpoint goalie Lilliana Brinkmeier who kept the prolific scorer at bay.
“She is one of, if not the best, goalkeepers in Idaho, and we’ve said that for three years now,” Baranski said. “She’s an incredible competitor, and we owe a lot of our success to her.”
Brinkmeier finished with 12 saves Saturday, and saved her biggest one for the game’s final seconds.
The Bulldogs were hanging on when Schmautz got behind the defense and had a clear shot on goal with about 30 seconds to play. Brinkmeier charged the future Bronco and made a sliding save.
“I just had to throw myself at the ball,” Brinkmeier said. “I really didn’t care if I got hurt at that point. Too much was on the line.”
Schmautz had plenty of chances. She was high on a shot late in the first half, and she had chances to tie the game twice early in the second half — one shot grazed the top of the crossbar and the other ricocheted off the right post.
There was a feeling on the pitch that she would eventually break through, Bishop Kelly coach Dawn Hill said, and she did. The senior tied the score with a header with 8:18 to play. Her teammates on the field buried her in a celebratory dog pile. Hill said the goal lifted the spirits of the players on the sideline, too.
“That was huge, and I felt like the momentum was finally going our way,” Hill said. “But the ball just didn’t bounce our way. Soccer is strange like that. (Sandpoint) outplayed us in the first half. I thought we came out aggressive in the second, but they got the bounces and finished their opportunities. We didn’t.”
Even though the final game of Schmautz’s high school career didn’t end the way anyone at Bishop Kelly wanted, Hill said her contributions to the program won’t be forgotten. She’ll leave Bishop Kelly with 96 career goals.
“I’ve had the pleasure of coaching her the last three years,” Hill said. “She was dominant this year and she’s a great leader, so her legacy will last.”
This story was originally published October 21, 2023 at 9:04 PM.