Badger girls win 6-2 over P
Until last Thursday night, the Bonners Ferry Badger girls’ soccer team had played and defeated every other team in the league except one — they had yet to meet the Priest River Spartans.
They had that opportunity Sept. 6 as the Badgers met the Spartans in Priest River for an Intermountain League Conference game. The Badger girls, having beaten every other team in the league, put an exclamation point on their final game of the first go-round in league play by defeating Priest River 6-2, elevating the Badgers to 5-0 in league play.
It didn’t take the Badger girls long to open the scoring as Lindsey Taggart scored only two and a half minutes into the game, and five minutes later Liz Racer put in a goal to make the score 2-0. Taggart and Racer each scored again over
See BADGERS, B-2
the next 8 minutes of play, on assists from Abby Skeen and Elizabeth Newhouse respectively, making the score 4-0 in favor of the Badgers , only 16 minutes into the first half of play.
In the second half of play, Priest River endured an ongoing barrage of Badger shots on the goal. At the 45th minute, Liz Racer hit a shot that the Priest River goalie was able to get her hands on, and even though she bobbled it, she kept it out of the net. At the 52nd minute Racer broke free again and this time was able to get the ball past the goalie, making the score 5-1 for the Badgers.
Priest River found their second goal at the 63rd minute with a high ball just out of Tessa Payne’s outstretched fingers. It was too little too late, though for the Spartans. The Badgers strong defensive play, always a bright spot for the team, kept the Spartans from scoring the remainder of the game. A defensive highlight came when Badger Senior Sydney Hubbard stopped a bullet-like kick with a head shot that probably produced a few stars.
At the 70th minute Jocelyn Palacios was able to get the ball into Racer directly in front of the Spartan goal. Racer maneuvered to just in front of the goal keeper, then kicked the ball past her for her fourth goal of the game, making the score 6-2 in favor of the Badgers.
The game ended with Bonners Ferry taking 24 shots on the Priest River goal and Priest River getting off 6 on the Badgers. With the final score of 6-2, the Badgers were undefeated in league play and had a record of 5-3 on the season.
Badgers vs. Kellogg 9/8/12
Bonners Ferry’s perfect record against league teams came to an end on Saturday, though, as they walked of the field in a tie with the visiting Kellogg Wildcats making their record 5-3-1, 5-0-1.
After a slow first half, the second half saw three goals, a yellow card, and a warning to the Badger bench. In the first minute of resumed play Lindsay Taggart put the ball in the back of the net for the first goal of the game and the would-be 1-0 Badger lead but the goal was negated when the referee called Taggart offsides.
It took only two minutes, though, for Taggart to amend the first mistake. She took a pass from Liz Racer and punched it past the keeper for a goal that would stick this time.
“The girls came out with intensity the second half,” remarked coach Erin Delude.
With the trouble Kellogg was having for most of the game to get shots off it looked like the Badgers might only need the one point. But in the 53rd minute Kellogg tied the score up. Intense play ensued with each team doing their best to gain the upper hand. Bonners Ferry was charged with their first yellow card when Abby Skeen was cited for overly aggressive play. When the yellow card stayed in the referee’s shirt pocket after Sarah Beck was run over, Coach Delude’s appeals were met with a warning from the officials.
In the end the Wildcats failed to put in another goal and Bonners Ferry’s cannon remained silent. No overtime is added during the regular season and the game ended in a tie.
After the print deadline Bonners Ferry played at Timberlake on Tuesday and their next game after that is against Libby which will be played at Troy High School at 6 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 17.