One ‘trash man goal’ and one upset sent two girls soccer teams to the 6A state tournament
Bishop Kelly and Rocky Mountain advanced to the district finals Monday, punching their tickets to the 6A girls soccer state tournament next week.
Bishop Kelly knocked off top-seeded Boise 3-1 in the first game of the 6A District Three Tournament semifinals at Timberline. Rocky Mountain followed with a 1-0 nailbiter over Timberline in the nightcap.
The fourth-seeded Knights (12-3-2) and second-seeded Grizzlies (14-1-2) will battle at 4 p.m. Wednesday at Timberline for the district title. Boise (11-2-2) and Timberline (11-4-3) dropped into the losers’ bracket, where they must win one of their next two games to qualify for state.
BISHOP KELLY 3, BOISE 1
The Knights raised a few eyebrows when they chose to play up in the state’s largest classification this season. But Bishop Kelly proved it belongs with Idaho’s best Monday, clinching its state berth by upsetting the two-time defending district champ and the district tournament’s top seed.
“I’m new to the school, but they had been dominant in (the old 4A classification) for so long, and they deserved to be in 6A,” Bishop Kelly junior forward Caitlin Staats said. “We’re showing it this season. We’re showing that we deserve to be here.”
Staats, Chloe Boyd and Erin DiVittorio all scored as the Knights hung three goals on a team that had given up just eight all season. Bishop Kelly sat back early in Monday’s district semifinal, absorbing the pressure as the Brave dominated possession before pouncing on two of their limited opportunities to snap Boise’s 13-game unbeaten streak.
Staats struck first in the 10th minute, charging the net and forcing Boise goalkeeper Juliette Langlett off her line for the clearance. But Taylor Deitzel fired the ball right back into the box and into Staats’ awaiting feet for the opening goal.
Boyd added to the lead in the 23rd minute, receiving another long ball in the box. Langlett stopped the first shot, but Boyd pounced on the rebound for a 2-0 lead.
The game opened up in the second half and Boise got on the scoreboard with Leidy Nielsen’s strike in the 46th minute. But DiVittorio capped the scoring with the goal of the day in the 64th minute, curling a 30-yard, left-footed shot into the top corner.
DiVittorio spent most of the game on the trainer’s table after injuring her left foot early. A heavy tape job allowed her back onto the field. But after delivering a highlight-reel goal with that same foot, she limped off the field once more.
Bishop Kelly previously dominated the state’s second division, winning 15 straight district titles and nine state championships at that level. The move to 6A promised to deliver more competition, and the Knights found themselves picked seventh out of 13 teams in the SIC’s preseason coaches’ poll.
Yet here they are, ready to contend for a 16th straight district championship and possibly another state crown.
“I don’t think we’re necessarily the most technical team,” Bishop Kelly coach Dawn Hill said. “We don’t knock the ball around and play real pretty. But we just have grit and heart, and we’ve figured out how to score goals all season.
“Hopefully, we can keep doing that.”
ROCKY MOUNTAIN 1, TIMBERLINE 0
Some portion of Maddie Jakobson clinched the Grizzlies a spot in the state tournament and Wednesday’s district championship game. But even she couldn’t tell you exactly which part.
The junior forward pounced on a save by Timberline goalkeeper Alexis Salisbury in the 31st minute Monday, somehow poking the ball loose and into the net for the game’s only goal.
The wild play started with Elly Levi firing a 35-yard free kick just under the crossbar. Salisbury leapt for the stop. But the ball remained in play and traffic crashed around her in the 6-yard box. And before anyone knew exactly what happened, the Grizzlies were on the scoreboard.
Jakobson shrugged when asked to detail how she scored the state tournament-clinching goal. Her best guess was the ball grazed off her stomach as Salisbury pulled in the save and squirted into the net.
“You only get a couple chances in games like this,” Jakobson said. “My dad always tells me you have to be the trash man sometimes, and pick up anything that comes out or the second save. ... Not every ball has to be this worldly goal. Whoever gets it in, gets it in. And that’s when you win games.”
The odd goal stood as the game-winner thanks to another lock-down performance from Rocky Mountain’s defense and goalkeeper Bea Levi, who made six saves. The most important one came in the 77th minute when she got a hand on a 30-yard rocket from Timberline’s Anika Callender, deflecting the shot off the crossbar and back into play. The Grizzlies eventually cleared the loose ball to hang on and stretch their unbeaten streak to 16 games.
“She’s upped her game,” Rocky Mountain coach Eric Simmonsen said. “She’s showing she’s probably one of the better keepers in the state in her graduating class. … When she’s needed to be big, she’s been big.”
The win sends the perennial power to the district finals for the sixth time in the past seven years. But that one absence came last year, when Rocky Mountain missed the state tournament for just the second time in program history.
Jakobson said that blip has fueled the Grizzlies all season long.
“Last year, we were really cocky and assumed it was just going to come because Rocky’s always been at state,” Jakobson said. “ ... Rocky has always been good, in the top three.
“So we took that opportunity for granted. This year, we were like, ‘No, we’re not doing that again.’”
This story was originally published October 14, 2024 at 8:32 PM.
