Two second-half goals push Panthers to victory; girls fall 2-0

Prior to their Class 3A Northwest Conference match against Powell High School, the Cody Broncs scouted the Panthers by watching their season-opening loss to Pinedale.

Unfortunately for Cody, the Panthers that struggled against Pinedale weren’t the Panthers that showed up to host the Broncs on Thursday in Powell.

Demonstrating more cohesion on offense and defense, PHS earned its first victory of the season thanks to an eventual game-winning goal from junior Kristian Stenlund and an insurance score from sophomore T.J. Abraham in the second half that sparked a 3-1 victory.

“I think overall the main difference in that game is we keep our shape, we win almost every 50-50 ball there is to have and just the energy level,” PHS coach Travis Rapp said. “The first five minutes of the game we almost had a goal in the first minute of the game off of [Trey Ouellette’s] header. So just that energy level, I don’t think Cody was ready for it.”

PHS (1-1, 1-0) came out ready to go, and Ouellette’s near-miss 20 seconds into the game set the tone for a high-pressure offense the Panthers failed to exhibit during their 2-1 loss to Pinedale. Ouellette fired another shot nearly four minutes later, and PHS scored another shot-on-goal in the 11th minute as the hosts attempted to keep the pressure on Cody goalkeeper Zach McIsaac.

But Cody (1-1, 0-1) found a way to weather the early storm and scored the first goal of the match seconds later in the 11th minute on Dawson Ritt’s low ball past PHS keeper Sean Wagner.

“We just couldn’t let that affect us,” PHS senior midfielder Heston Swenson said of the deficit.

In the 24th minute, it appeared it hadn’t.

PHS senior Luccho Maurizi tapped a corner kick from Cody’s half of the field to Ouellette, who then passed it back to Maurizi. Maurizi quickly crossed it to Swenson, who was waiting in the box for a header. Swenson fired the header past McIsaac to make it a 1-1 game that would stand until half two.

“It was a real difficult moment. We were down on our field — again — and yeah, that (play) was awesome,” Maurizi said. “We work in the week on that play a lot ... we enjoy it a lot ... and it works, so why not try it in the game?”

Rapp said the play leading to the score was one the Panthers had worked on specifically in practice to perfect leading up to Thursday.

“Always need [a play] like that to get guys fired up,” Rapp said. “A well-disciplined team is going to take stuff out of practice and you’re going to see it out on the field and they did a great job of that today.”

In the second half, PHS continued its offensive pressure while Wagner shut Cody down offensively. The junior finished with 12 saves. Powell totaled 16 shots-on-goal, and finally took the lead with an opportunistic play from Stenlund midway through the half.

After sophomore Owen Dent corralled a corner kick, he headed the ball to Stenlund, who was sitting deceivingly dormant near the Cody box. Stenlund collected Dent’s pass and scooted it around McIsaac for what became the game-winner.

“Owen Dent — awesome job on wing today. Awesome job,” Rapp said. “He assisted that second goal and was a part of all three goals — just a fantastic job.”

Rapp said Stenlund’s goal appeared to be a right-place, right-time opportunity, but it was really a product of the way Powell is taught to play.

“Right place, right time, but that’s also what we coach them to do,” Rapp said. “If we can dictate where the defense is, you can score goals. That’s the name of the game.”

Abraham iced the win with a score in the final minutes. The forward misfired on a few shots early on, but finally scored when he collected his own deflected shot off the body of McIsaac and fired it into the CHS net to account for the final score.

“I had a lucky bounce and I didn’t give up — you just have to go in for it,” Abraham said.

His coach added: “T.J. is one of the hardest workers I’ve worked with before, and to see the effort up front — we’re playing a single forward position and that is exhausting for a forward — (he) never [complained], just go out and do it.”

Rapp said the Panther team that beat Cody is the team the Powell community should see regularly this spring.

“This is the team we expect to show up all the time,” Rapp said. “That’s where some of the disappointment from that Pinedale game came from, it was just ‘This isn’t us.’

“This is what you should expect every time you come to see us.”

Lady Panthers blanked

The weather conditions during the Lady Panthers’ game against Cody on Thursday were nearly a carbon copy of their March 28 season opener.

PHS’ performance against the Fillies was not.

Four days after exploding for five goals in a windy home win over Pinedale, Powell was unable to keep its momentum going, being shut out by the Cody defense in a 2-0 Class 3A Northwest Conference defeat.

Playing in harsh winds for the second straight game, PHS (1-1, 0-1) had limited opportunities against Cody senior goalkeeper Raven Johnson, as freshman Joey Haire led the Lady Panthers with five shots and senior Aimee Kawano tallied three.

“We’ve got a little bit to work on with our [midfielders],” PHS head coach Jack Haire said. “We didn’t move the ball around quite as well as we had hoped.

“They’ve got a good senior keeper — they’re a tough team.”

While their defense stymied the hosts, the Fillie offense smothered Powell keeper Gabby Hirsch with more than 20 shots, leading to 18 saves for the sophomore.

Both Johnson and Hirsch kept the game scoreless through the first 40 minutes of play, but Cody (2-0, 1-0) broke through early in the second half with the only goal it would need, a short shot from CHS sophomore Hannah Bailey.

“That first goal, there were just no defenders [in front of me], and the fastest thing I could do wasn’t fast enough,” Hirsch said, and added about the wind: “Kicking with the wind and kicking against the wind, there’s just a night and day difference. And having to defend against that, it’s just something else.”

The Fillies seemingly found a way to beat the wind, smothering the PHS net in the 74th minute before Cody junior Sami Heimer squirted another shot past Hirsch for some insurance.

“That second shot, I didn’t even see it,” Hirsch said.

Coach Haire said he learned some things from the loss that he hopes will better his team’s chances when they meet the Fillies again in Cody on May 2.

“You’ll see in four weeks,” Haire said.

For now, PHS won’t return to the field until April 14, when it travels to Worland.