Girls soccer team gear up for districts
Senior soccer players
The Lady Badgers (10-3-1, 9-0-1) notched two more league wins last week and secured first place in the league going into the district tournament.
The top position gives Bonners Ferry the advantage of a bye for the first round of the tournament.
The first of their two victories came against Orofino at home on Friday. The Maniacs were no match for the Badger onslaught on senior night. Four different Badgers scored the first four goals of the game.
Liz Racer struck first in the sixth minute, Ivy Dirks made it 2-0 in the 14th minute, Anika Blackmore put a long shot over the goalie’s head in the 16th minute for the third unanswered goal, and Elizabeth Newhouse added to the lead with the Badgers’ fourth goal in the 30th minute. Hailey Beazer, Blackmore, Jocelyn Palacios, and Racer got the assists respectively on those goals.
In the second half Bonners Ferry slowed things down a little and put the ball in the back of the Orofino net only twice.
Those two goals, though, were good enough for a hat trick for Racer and the single season goal record. The final score of the game came during the 70th minute and was Racer’s 26th on the year besting Jennifer Putnam’s previous record of 25 set five years ago.
As usual the defense led by seniors Tessa Payne and Sydney Hubbard was solid and came away with their second shutout in three games and the 6-0 victory.
The Badgers were right back at it on Saturday. They traveled to Coeur d’Alene where they were hosted by Coeur d’Alene Charter.
Liz Racer opened the Badger scoring with a shot from far to the left of the goal. Her kick arched just over the head of the Panther goal keeper, dropping into the opposite corner of the goal for the only score of the first half of play.
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The Panthers came out firing the second half, with a flurry of shots on the Badger goal. In four shots the Panthers missed twice and were twice turned away by Tessa Payne.
In the midst of those shots, the Badgers kept up their methodic scoring, with Lindsay Taggart putting in the second Badger goal and Racer completed the scoring with a goal in the 61st minute to set the score at 3-0.
The Panther zero on the scoreboard reflects the great defensive play that has been a hallmark of this team this season. A couple of times toward the end of the game, the Panthers had a crowd of players desperately staging an assault right at the Badger goal, but they were turned away scoreless each time by the Badgers’ solid back line of players, including Sarah Schuman, Jordan Grapensteter, Sydney Hubbard, Hailey Beazer, and Anika Blackmore.
The victory over Coeur d’Alene Charter concluded regular season league play and secured first place in the league for a special team led by 10 seniors. To illustrate what type of team the Badgers put together, this year in league play Bonners Ferry has scored a total of 37 goals while holding their opponents to a mere six combined goals.
On Tuesday the Badgers headed to Kalispell to take on Stillwater Christian and are then on to the District Tournament Tuesday with a chance to play in the Idaho state championship tournament.