Heart Mountain soccer teams take gold, silver, bronze

Posted 6/6/17

The U12 boys team won the state championship title in the silver division, U10 coed team finished second and the U15 coed team finished third in the gold division.

U10 coed

Across five weekend games, the U10 coed Heart Mountain United Soccer …

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Heart Mountain soccer teams take gold, silver, bronze

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Several of the Heart Mountain United soccer squads concluded their spring seasons with strong finishes at the Wyoming State Cup and Rec Fest in Casper on May 24-26.

The U12 boys team won the state championship title in the silver division, U10 coed team finished second and the U15 coed team finished third in the gold division.

U10 coed

Across five weekend games, the U10 coed Heart Mountain United Soccer team advanced to the championship.

The first game was against Worland.

“Our kids were a little sleepy with the 8 a.m. start and it looked like we were going into halftime with a 1-1 tie after a late Worland goal. But on the ensuing kickoff, Kaden Hammond was able to boom a direct shot into the goal and it motivated us to a 4-1 win,” said coach Brian Orr.

The win was followed by a match against Lander.

“We were dominating the game [early], but it took some time for Caden Nelson to knock the first goal in. After that, another goal by Nelson, followed by Braxton Batt, Breckyn Kobbe and Brenna Henderson wore Lander out,” Orr said.

Heart Mountain won 5-0.

The next game was against Buffalo on Sunday, a team that beat Heart Mountain 6-0 a couple weeks earlier.

“We played well,” Orr said. “It was a 1-0 deficit after a questionable penalty kick at halftime. It was 1-0 for most of the second half until Buffalo scored two goals late in the last 10 minutes to put the game away. Emily Orr, Hammond and Coy Erickson played great defense and kept us in the game.”

Next up was a convincing 6-0 win over Green River’s U9 team. Cory Erickson scored a goal on his birthday, while Nelson, Batt, Hammond, Cody Fisher and Sean Ferguson also added goals.

That set up a Monday rematch against Buffalo for the championship.

A corner kick by Hammond gave Heart Mountain a 1-0 lead, but Buffalo answered to tie things up at halftime. Hammond put in another goal in the second half to put the Powell team back up, 2-1, but “another questionable penalty kick and two late goals sucked the momentum out of us” in a 4-2 loss, Orr said.

Orr singled out a new player, Cayden Fink, “for his great play and hustle.”

“He controlled the midfield most of the weekend and was key player all season even though he didn’t score many goals,” Orr said, adding, “Taylor Peters played stopper, midfield and forward during the weekend and played great in all of the roles.”

The coach was also proud of the overall season.

“This group went from winning one game last fall to placing second in two tournaments,” said Orr. “A remarkable turnaround and a great season.”

U12 boys

The U12 Heart Mountain United team won the state championship in the silver division.

The first game was a 2-2 tie with Buffalo on Saturday.

“We weren’t very aggressive and winning 50/50 balls,” said coach Orr. “Very fortunate to get a tie.”

He added that, “early in the game, Holden Cooper went up for a save and punched the ball over the top of the crossbar and unknowingly fractured his wrist on the save; he stayed in the rest of the game and made several more great saves.”

Heart Mountain’s two goals came from Jacob Orr “on a long free kick” and Chance Franks on “a great shot off a

corner kick,” the coach said.

After what coach Orr described as “a pretty epic butt chewing about effort and playing with intensity,” the Heart Mountain team responded with a dominating 6-1 win over Douglas later in the day.

“Much better effort and passing,” he said. Morgan Hobbs and Gunnar Erickson had multiple goals, with Will Jackson adding one.

Sunday brought a must-win game against Rock Springs.

“Rock Springs plays a dirty rugby style of soccer and they were called for at least 20 fouls to our three,” said coach Orr. “Given the high stakes of the game, it was extremely intense.”

Erickson was tasked with defending one of Rock Springs’ standout players.

“The kids played extraordinary,” coach Orr said. “Chance Franks also took some major hits and JR Prosser, our replacement for Cooper, had to make some key saves.”

Heart Mountain jumped to a 3-1 lead early in the second half, but Rock Springs punched in two quick ones to tie it up.

The momentum switched back Powell’s way with a “perfectly lofted” corner kick from Erickson that Landon Hernandez redirected into the goal with his shoulder, coach Orr said.

“It pumped us up and allowed us to escape with the 5-3 victory,” he said.

The win over Rock Springs put Heart Mountain into the semifinal game against Cody.

“Our kids were exhausted and beaten up from the last game,” Orr said of heading into the semifinal game. “While we are a better team than Cody, having played them a couple of times earlier this year, I knew it was going to be a tough game.”

Morgan Hobbs scored early off an assist from Franks, but Cody was able to answer toward the end of the first half.

With about 10 minutes left in the second half, Hobbs broke loose for a go-ahead goal and Franks added an insurance goal for a 3-1 win, said coach Orr. He added that, “Andrew Moretti, McKenzie Fields, Jordyn Dearcorn, and Gracie Trotter were able to provide much needed sparks to a tired team.”

The championship game was played on Monday against Buffalo. Hobbs knocked in “a great shot” for an early Powell lead, before Buffalo tied things up, Orr said.

Midway through the second half, Prosser had to face his first penalty kick.

“The Buffalo kicker made a great shot, but Prosser was able to stick [out] his left hand enough on the ball to redirect it out of bounds,” coach Orr said. “It pumped our kids and fans up and within a minute Aubree Fisher was able to draw a foul and Orr placed a great free kick over to Hobbs and he was able to loft a great shot into the upper left corner.”

Heart Mountain won 2-0 for the state championship title.

“Our defense, which has been stout all season, was led by Conner Boswell, Orr and Franks,” said Orr, adding, “This group only lost once all spring and placed first in three tournaments. A great group of players and even better kids to coach.”

U15 coed

In the U15 Gold Division, the coed Heart Mountain United team battled to third place.

The club started with a 3-0 win over Gillette.

“We pretty much dominated the game really only allowing one legitimate shot on goal,” said coach Josh Westerhold.

Jesse Trotter notched a hat trick scoring all three of the team’s goals.

“Landon Sessions, Hawkin Sweeney and Garrett Morris completely controlled the midfield and kept the ball on the offensive half of the field nearly the entire game,” Westerhold said, adding, “We had a lot of good opportunities and made a lot of good efforts at them. It was clear that the work we had done on finishing (scoring) was paying off.”

The win place Heart Mountain against Green River and “we handled them easily,” said Westerhold. “We came out scoring early and often and were able to distribute minutes pretty evenly across our entire lineup in order to be as well rested as possible for Sunday.”

Heart Mountain won 6-0.

Westerhold said the highlight was a drop pass to Garrett Morris from Sam Bauer.

“[Bauer] had the ball in the box but was covered well. Sam dropped a pass to [Morris] as he was rushing in and as he did he dropped to the ground so [Morris] could fire the ball over him into the back of the net. It was ESPN-worthy,” Westerhold said. “Another highlight was Alex Martinez converting a goal on a great cross from Dylan Escalante.”

On Sunday, Heart Mountain played Casper and Lander, who Westerhold described as “the two tougher teams in our division.”

“We came out against Casper on fire and completely owned them for the first half,” said Westerhold. “We scored within the first couple minutes on a cross to Jesse Trotter sweeping in towards the goal on the left side. The ball was played perfectly in front of [Trotter] and he struck the ball so hard it probably would have landed in Shoshoni had there not been a net in front of it.”

Heart Mountain continued to control the game, leading at halftime 3-1.

“Unfortunately, Landon Sessions went down with a badly sprained ankle and we had already lost Reece Bauer earlier in the week to a broken arm. Without those two starters, it was clear that our gas tank was a little less full,” Westerhold said. “Morris stepped into the center midfielder position and played great, but it became increasingly difficult for us to keep Casper away from the goal as the game wore on.”

Casper won 4-3.

“They made some changes,” said Westerhold. “Casper has a couple forwards that play on the outside who are extremely talented, but Jack Pool completely shut them down. It was one of the most dominating defensive performances I’ve ever seen by a player ... and he was one of our stronger offensive weapons throughout the tournament as well.”

Westerhold also noted that “Ashton Brewer made an amazing save to keep Casper out of the goal late by backpedaling across the goal and punching the ball away as he dove backwards. No other keeper in the state could have made that save.”

The second game on Sunday, and final game of the tournament came against Lander. After trailing 1-0 early, Heart Mountain tied it “on a backwards header into the goal by Kaleb Brown,” Westerhold said. “Kaleb has been a consistent scorer for us all season, but this was a pretty special goal. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone head it in backwards in a game before.”

Heart Mountain went on to win, 3-1.

“We battled to the end for sure, but struggled to overcome the exhaustion and disappointment of the Casper game,” said Westerhold.

He called the overall season a success.

“Third place for our a town, our size in the highest division there is in Wyoming Youth Soccer is really impressive,” the coach said. “We threw punches with the toughest teams in the state and held our own. It was a very rewarding season and the future certainly looks bright for Powell soccer.”

In the fall, some of the Heart Mountain United Soccer Association players will move up from U8 to U10, U10 to U12, and U12 to U15, etc.

“For those interested, it is a great time to jump into this competitive environment as the teams are being recreated,” said coach Orr. “We really have a shortage of girls in the program.”

Currently, there are only four girls at U10 and four girls at U12.

Orr said the ideal number is 12 to 15 players per level.

“Our high school girls program recently had some success. If we are going to sustain it and even take both the boys and girls programs to the next level, we need kids playing competitive soccer at a young level,” Orr said. “We’ve added several players this spring and each one of them enjoyed it immensely!”

For more information or to sign up, call Jennifer Franks at 307-272-0206.

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