Badger Boys Improve to 9-3

The Bonners Ferry Badger Boy’s Soccer team won three games in four days, beginning Saturday Sept. 18 with a 6 – 0 road win over Priest River to improve their league-leading IML record to 4 – 0.  Sophomore Steven Bachmann scored his first two goals as a Badger, and junior defender Hayden Wakkinen tallied his first to go along with goals by junior Andre Zarate and senior Alex Mendez to pace the Badgers to the easy victory.

Bonners traveled to Troy on Monday to face the Libby Loggers, and came out on top in a hard-earned 2 – 0 victory, improving their season record to 8 – 3.  The Badgers struck quickly in the first half, with senior midfielder Aaron Borne feeding Andre Zarate with a nifty through pass which the junior forward converted in the fourth minute to give Bonners Ferry a quick lead.  The Badgers dominated the midfield, controlling the pace and flow of the game.  One minute before halftime, Zarate sent a beautiful crossing pass to Mendez at the eighteen, and the senior co-captain buried a rocket into the upper corner of the goal to give Bonners a 2 – 0 halftime lead.  Senior goalkeeper Mat Evans made several nice saves to keep the Loggers of the board, and in the second half the back-four defenders Trevor Hampton, Keaton Tremble, Hayden Wakkinen, and Ken Pew denied every Logger scoring opportunity.

On Tuesday, the Badgers entertained St. George’s of Spokane in an exciting home match.  Bonners Ferry got off to a surprising 4 – 0 lead in the first half thanks to four goals by Zarate in the first twenty minutes.  Assists on the junior forward’s goals were delivered by senior midfielder Aaron Borne, junior midfielder Daniel Palacios, and the last two by sophomore forward Steven Bachmann.  The Dragons answered with a goal in the 22nd minute by Karl Muelhiems to make the halftime score 4 – 1 Badgers.  Erik Muelhiems converted in the 44th minute, and when Karl scored again in the 75th minute, the game got a little tense, but the Badgers held on for a hard-fought 4 – 3 victory.

The Badger Boys and Girls Soccer teams continue league play this Saturday against St. Maries, the girls kicking off at 11:00 and the boys at 1:00.