PHS soccer kicks off season

Posted 3/23/17

On Saturday, the girls lost to Star Valley but the boys were unable to make the trip due to a road closure.

Lady Panther Soccer

The Lady Panthers played first on Friday afternoon, beating Pinedale’s Lady Wranglers 2-0.

“It was nice to …

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PHS soccer kicks off season

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Both the boys and girls Powell High School soccer teams started off the season with wins over Pinedale on Friday.

On Saturday, the girls lost to Star Valley but the boys were unable to make the trip due to a road closure.

Lady Panther Soccer

The Lady Panthers played first on Friday afternoon, beating Pinedale’s Lady Wranglers 2-0.

“It was nice to get the win right off the bat,” said PHS girls soccer head coach Jack Haire.

Haire added that Pinedale played tough, but goals Kayla Atkinson and Michele Wagner within a few minutes of each other secured the win for the Lady Panthers.

“We came out strong as a team, passed the ball around well, had good ball movement,” said Haire.

Atkinson and Wagner also had one assist apiece, assisting one another.

Goalie Gabby Hirsch had 16 saves against Pinedale.

“The girls never gave up and that is so powerful,” said Haire, adding that it “says a lot about our team this year.”

After Friday’s game against Pinedale, Powell headed to Star Valley to face the Lady Braves on Saturday. Star Valley took a 3-0 win.

“Star Valley has a quality team and we just weren’t able to put it together,” said Haire, describing the Lady Braves as the No. 1 or No. 2 team in state.

At halftime, Star Valley led 2-0.

“I’m very proud of our team, we didn’t give up,” said Haire. “We didn’t quit at halftime, that we kept fighting through it.”

Hirsch had 23 saves in the game, which brought her weekend total to 39 saves.

Panther Soccer

Powell’s boys bested Pindale’s Wranglers 2-1 late Friday afternoon.

“Our first contest, it was good to see what happened with the boys, some of our positives and some of our negatives,” said PHS boys head soccer coach Jeff Dent, adding, “Our form wasn’t quite the same or wasn’t real good, but that’s because we are trying a different system.”

This is Dent’s first year as head coach and he’s making some changes to the Panthers’ style of play.

With the changes, “the boys have caught onto part of it, but not all of it,” the coach said. “So we have to do some more changes in training.”

But Dent also added that, “we also saw a lot of positives with the boys — doing excellent ball control and working with the ball and talking to each other.”

Dent said it was not just the varsity team that played well, but also the junior varsity; he said the boys stepped up and did a really nice job.

Dent said the focus for this year “is to play our game and not the other team’s game.”

Brian Crawford scored the first goal of the season with an assist from Noah Ouellette.

After the win against Pinedale, Powell was not able to travel to Star Valley. The Snake River Canyon closed Friday night due to a crack in the northbound lane from a forming sinkhole. According to a report from the Jackson Hole News and Guide, the crack in the pavement widened about 6 inches in about two hours on Friday night.

The game against Star Valley was postponed and will be made up at a later date.

This weekend, both the boys and girls soccer teams will travel to Cody on Friday and host Worland on Saturday.

The Lady Panthers play at 3 p.m. on Friday and noon on Saturday.

“We have two very tough games ahead of us,” said coach Haire.

After the first week of competition, Cody has a 2-0 record, beating both Star Valley and Pinedale last weekend.

Powell has a 1-1 record and Worland hasn’t played yet this season.

Currently, Cody, Worland and Star Valley sit at the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 ranked spots in the state.

Coach Haire said he wants the Lady Panthers to play as a team, put forth their best effort and to not give up this weekend. 

Haire added that the Lady Panther soccer team is a fantastic group and he’s excited to be coaching them this year.

Meanwhile, the Panther boys will play at 5 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. Saturday.

Cody’s Broncs are ranked No. 2 in the state and have a 2-0 record; like the Fillies, they beat both Pinedale and Star Valley last weekend.

Powell comes into the weekend 1-0 while Worland will be seeing its first action of the spring.

Powell, Cody and Worland are the three teams in the 3A northwest bracket, so this weekend’s competition is important for seedings toward the end of the season. 

(Editor's note: This version corrects the score of the girls' 2-0 win over Pinedale.)

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