The Heart Mountain United Soccer teams already have two tournaments — and a couple first place finishes — under their cleats this spring.

The first tournament took place on April 22-23 at the Cody Shootout, with the second on April 29-30 at the Stockman Bank Magic City Classic in Billings, Montana.

U8 Girls

At the Cody Shootout, the U8 Girls Heart Mountain Soccer team posted two wins over Sheridan Storm, 6-5 and 9-4, and lost 4-0 to the Lander Strikers.

Coach Jessica Lum said the girls got off to “a great start.”

“The girls faced some stiff competition in their opening weekend and it will be exciting to see them grow over the next few months,” Lum said.

U8 Boys

The U8 boys similarly had “a strong weekend” in Cody, said coach Pat D’Alessandro. They lost the first game in a heartbreaker; after leading the entire game, Heart Mountain saw Lander score two goals in the final 90 seconds to win, 3-2.

In their next game of the tournament, Heart Mountain trailed the Sheridan Storm 5-2 at the half

“In the second half they came out with renewed vigor and scored two goals to bring the final score to 5-4,” said D’Alessandro.

Finally, in the third game, Heart Mountain faced off against Riverton. D’Alessandro described the first half as “tightly contested,” with the score knotted at 0-0.

In the second half, however, Heart Mountain scored three goals and shutout Riverton to win 3-0.

The goals over the weekend’s competition were scored by Kesh Pohlman, Jayden Stanonik, Braxton Nelson and Ryder Stewart.

D’Alessandro said that Brenden Boswell and Knox Johnson “led the strong defensive effort from the center defensive position.

U10

“Our U10 group has improved [a] ton in the last month and I am excited to see how they continue to grow throughout the season,” said coach Brian Orr.

At the season-opening Cody Shootout, the team held a lead in each game, “we just weren’t able to close the deal in two of them,” Orr said.

The win was an 8-0 victory over Laurel Storm and the two losses were an 8-4 loss to Yellowstone Fire and 3-2 loss to Sheridan Storm.

“The more experience we have in tight games, the more comfortable the kids will become in those situations,” said Orr.

At the Stockman Bank Magic City Classic, Heart Mountain United U10 team played four games.

On Saturday, Heart Mountain lost to Casper 5-1 and beat Bozeman 5-3. On Sunday, they lost to both Buffalo, 6-0, and Sheridan, 7-1.

Orr said that the team is “improving significantly and I feel like we will be very competitive as the year progresses.”

Goals in Billings were scored by Caden Nelson, Braxton Batt, Kaden Hammond, Cayden Fink and Taylor Peters.

In the win against Bozeman, Orr said Coy Erickson, Emily Orr and Cody Fisher on defense and Nelson in goal “performed incredibly.”

Also receiving praise in different positions were Brenna Henderson, Sean Ferguson, Braylon Marchant and Breckyn Kobbe.

U12

The three games for the U12 Heart Mountain team in Cody were wins over both Laurel Storm, 2-0, and Casper Blades Black, 5-0, with a loss to Casper Blades Red, 5-0.

“Casper Red is a tough gold team, which we played to a 1-0 deficit at halftime,” said coach Orr. “We had a few opportunities to keep the game close, but just didn’t convert any of our scoring chances.”

Of the team, coach Orr said “this group is very resilient” and that he was looking forward to how they would play in Billings.

At the Stockman Bank Magic City Classic, the Heart Mountain United U12 team wound up going undefeated to win the championship.

Saturday’s and Sunday’s games were against the same opponents. The Heart Mountain team beat the Johnson County Blast 6-3 and Laurel Storm Purple 4-2 on Saturday. On Sunday, they beat the Blast 5-0 and the Storm Purple 3-1.

“Our offense got much better as the weekend progressed, with better passing and movement,” said coach Orr.

The goals scored over the weekend were by Morgan Hobbs, Jacob Orr, Gunner Erickson, Will Jackson, Andrew Moretti, JR Prosser and Jordyn Dearcorn.

Coach Orr said the goals scored by Moretti, Prosser and Dearcorn were the first of their careers with Heart Mountain United.

“Our defense was fantastic,” the coach added, noting that the team allowed only one goal during Sunday’s semi-final and final games.

“Holden Copper, our goalkeeper, made some fantastic saves,” said coach Orr.

He said the defense was anchored by Conner Boswell, Chance Franks and McKenzie Fields and Jacob Orr.

“Our mid-field players were able to balance their offense and defense duties well,” said coach Orr.

Those mid-fielders include Erickson, Landon Hernandez, Parker Williams, Aubree Fisher and Gracie Trotter.

U15

The Heart Mountain United Soccer U15 team placed second in the gold division at the Cody Shootout, going 2-2 for the weekend.

The team’s first game was a 5-1 win over Yellowstone Fire, with goals by Sam Bauer, Hawkin Sweeney, Landon Sessions and two goals scored by Jesse Trotter.

Saturday’s second game was a 3-0 victory over Sheridan Storm. Trotter scored one of the goals and the other two were by Sam Bauer.

Sunday featured two matchups with the Lander Strikers, with Lander winning 3-2 and 4-1.

The three goals scored in both games were by Sam Bauer, Sweeney and Alex Martinez.

Coach Josh Westerhold said Martinez’s goal was the highlight.

“[Martinez] has played for Heart Mountain for seven or eight years and this is the first goal he’s scored,” said Westerhold. “He drew a foul in the box and earned a penalty. He drilled the kick into the back of the net and everyone went crazy! He totally earned it.”

The coach added that he was, “really impressed with our defense,” comprised of Lane Franks, Matthew Hobbs, Reece Bauer, Jack Pool and Trevor Groves.

“They played increasingly well as the weekend went on,” said Westerhold, adding that the center midfielders “worked their tails off covering a huge amount of field while playing lots of minutes.”

The center midfielders the coach was referring to were Sessions, Sweeney and Garrett Morris.

At the Stockman Bank Magic City Classic, Heart Mountain United U15 team won the championship, going 4-0.

The first game was a 3-1 win against Billings.

“We came out really aggressive, but sloppy,” said Westerhold. “We had a lot of opportunities to score as we were on the offensive half of the field for nearly the entire first half. Because we were substantially better than our opponent, the kids lost their focus and played down to the level of their competition.”

The second win came over Bozeman, 2-0.

“Our inability to finish our opportunities continued against a really good Bozeman team,” said Westerhold. “They were a well-schooled team that just physically couldn’t match up against us.”

The third victory came over Casper Blades Black 3-0.

“Probably our best-played game. Casper is a great program,” said Westerhold. “[The] highlight was a free kick from Reece Bauer outside the goal box to Sam Bauer for a header to score.”

The championship game was a 1-0 win over Rapid City.

The lone goal was scored early on by Kaleb Brown and Heart Mountain United was able to hold Rapid City scoreless for the win.

Overall for the weekend, Westerhold said Sessions, Sweeney, Trotter and Morris “pretty much dominated everybody throughout the tournament.”

“Clearly our defense was the key to our success as we only gave up one — which happened on kind of a fluke play where our goalkeeper slipped and fell,” the coach said.

Throughout the tournament, Sam Bauer, Brown and Trotter all played goalkeeper.

“[I] was really impressed with the improvement of newcomer Dylan Escalante,” said Westerhold. “[Escalante’s] improvement week after week has been really impressive. He continues to make leaps and bounds and is earning more and more time on the field.”

Overall, Westerhold said “the theme of this tournament was ‘missed opportunities.’ We had a tremendous number of shots [on] goal and missed many of them by a matter of inches.

“It was a solid effort,” he added. “Every player on our roster showed improvement and contributed. Our team continues to grow and improve.”

Up next for Heart Mountain United Soccer are Spring League Games in Cody Saturday and Sunday.