Kicking down the door
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With a season sweep of Whitefish, Polson not only joins the playoff party, but also becomes one of the elite teams in the conference.
The Polson Pirates weren’t satisfied with just making the playoffs for the first time since 2005 – they want to return to the postseason as the number one seed from the Northwestern A Conference.
The Pirates kept their conference championship hopes alive by beating Whitefish 2-1 at home Saturday. With the homecoming win, the Pirates beat the Bulldogs twice in a season for the first time, but more importantly the win put the Pirates on a collision course with the Loggers in Libby Saturday for the conference championship and a chance to host a playoff game.
“It gave the team a lot of confidence that they can beat a good team twice in one season,” Polson coach Jess Kittle said of the Pirates’ second 2-1 win over Whitefish this season. “They proved that it wasn’t just a fluke. We can back it up.”
In their first win, the Pirates fell behind and had to come back and score two late goals for the victory, but Saturday the Pirates took a 2-0 lead and held on for the win.
Senior captain Trever Moll had a part in both of the Pirates’ goals. Just three minutes into the second half, with two Bulldog defenders charging him, Moll waited until the last possible second to pass the ball off to Marcus Corley. Before the Whitefish goalkeeper had time to react, Corley blasted a shot to the far post from about 10 yards for his second goal of his high school career.
After Moll passed the ball, the Bulldogs defenders crashed into him sending him to the ground. Moll was down for a while, but was able to return to score a goal in the 56th minute, from about the same spot Corley scored his first goal. Striker Giorgio Traini assisted on the goal. It was Moll’s second goal of the season. He scored his first goal in Polson’s 2-1 win against Stillwater earlier in the week.
“Trever’s done a great job in holding down the defense all season, the shots and goals just weren’t falling for him. It’s nice to see things start falling for him,” Kittle said of his midfielder.
The Bulldogs scored in the 59th minute on a penalty kick, but the Pirates’ defense stepped up and shutdown the Bulldog attack for the final 20 minutes.
“They looked so solid. They did a good job in really stopping Whitefish from getting any quality looks at the goal. They did a really nice job in working as a unit to shutdown the Whitefish attack,” Kittle said.
The Pirate defense has a .5 goal against average in their four conference games and a .75 goal against average on the season. Kittle said the key to the Pirates’ lockdown defense is teamwork.
“It’s so hard to single guys out, because they all work so hard and they all work together,” Kittle said.
After starting the season going 0-3-1 and not scoring a goal in the first four games, the Pirates have averaged three goals a game in four straight wins.
“The guys all had it in them throughout the season, things weren’t falling for them at the beginning of the season,” Kittle said. “I rather have it this way than the other way around. If I had to have it one way or the other, I’d want to be scoring goals at the end of the season.”
The Pirates (6-3-1, 5-0-1) wrap up the regular season by hosting Bigfork Thursday and traveling to Libby Saturday.
Summary
Polson 2, Stillwater 1
Polson 0 2–2
Stillwater 1 0–1
S - Steven Meadows (Josh Bray) 5:00
P - Trever Moll (James Larson) 52:00
P - James Larson (Marcus Corley) 74:00
Polson 2, Whitefish 1
Whitefish 0 1–1
Polson 0 2–2
P - Marcus Corley (Trevor Moll), 43:00
P - Moll (Giorgio Traini), 56:00
W - Jack Steele, 59:00
