Boys’ starter cut due to conduct  

The Powell High School soccer teams will look to keep their respective winning streaks alive when they resume play today (Tuesday) in Cody.

The Panther girls will kick things off with a 4 p.m. game with the boys to follow.

The boys have started the season a perfect 4-0 record, including two Northwest Quadrant wins. The girls (3-5 overall, 0-2 in the Northwest) started with four straight losses but went 3-1 at the Worland Invitational April 11-12 to climb back into the playoff race and even earned a single third-place vote in the most recent Wyopreps coach’s and media poll.

Both squads have seven games remaining before the state tournament in Jackson May 22-24.

The No. 4-ranked Powell boys will try to notch their fifth win the same way they got their fourth — by beating the Broncs. The undefeated Panthers haven’t played since shutting out Cody 3-0 April 7 at home.

A young Cody Broncs team enters the second half of the season with a 3-6 overall record, and are 0-2 in the Northwest. The unranked Broncs played four games at the Green River Invitational, of which PHS opted out, giving them nine total games played to Powell’s four.

The boys sit in first place in the Northwest Quadrant with Worland (3-7, 1-1) and Cody giving chase.

Meanwhile, the Panther girls fell to the Fillies 3-2 in their second one-goal loss of the season. The Fillies stormed out of the gate and won their first five games before falling 2-0 to Jackson April 11. The second-ranked Cody girls enter today’s game 8-1 overall and are first in the Northwest with a 2-0 quadrant record.

Worland (6-4, 1-1) sits between Cody and Powell in the standings.

The boys will field a slightly altered lineup in the season’s second half due to the loss of starting senior midfielder Heston Swenson, who violated team policy and was removed from the roster by head coach Travis Rapp.

Sophomore Trey Ouellette will move up from his defensive midfielder position to take Swenson’s place, and freshman Brekyn Herd will enter the starting lineup in place of Ouellette.

“We have a lot of good guys on our team and we’ll move forward,” Rapp said.

Swenson had one assist in four games and many of the Panthers’ attacks began with the ball at his feet.

Rapp seemed unfazed by the loss and is determined to get his guys playing like nothing has changed.

“We’ve had a decent week of practice and we’re moving forward,” the coach said.

Superintendent Kevin Mitchell said via email that Swenson’s violation was a first offense, which calls for a two-week school suspension. Coaches can then enforce team policies and punishments as they see fit.