PHS girls’ soccer to play Torrington for state bid 

A 6-10 record and a last-place finish in the Northwest Quadrant haven’t eliminated the Powell Panthers girls’ soccer team from postseason play.

The Panthers can still qualify for the state tournament by beating Torrington (8-5, second in the Southeast) Saturday in Lander in a win-or-go-home game.

“(I’m) looking forward to it,” said PHS head coach Isaac Reyesmejia upon learning his team’s season was not yet finished. “Lots of work to do.”

The Worland Warriors (9-6, 2-2 Northwest) won the Northwest Quadrant title and an automatic bid to state after a series of tiebreakers separated them from Powell and Cody, both of which also finished 2-2 in the quadrant.

Reyesmejia said he expected it to be a tough fight for state tournament berths.

“I was pretty certain that Worland was going to get the No. 1 seed (in the Northwest) and it was going to come down to us and Cody for who was going to get the two and the three,” Reyesmejia said.

Cody claimed second place because of a better record than Powell against common opponents. The Fillies went a combined 2-5 against Jackson, Star Valley and Pinedale, while Powell went 1-6 against those same squads.

Both Powell and Cody went 0-2 in road games against Jackson and Star Valley over the weekend.

But Powell did all it could to make a mess of the Northwest Quadrant by beating Worland 1-0 in a must-win home finale Thursday afternoon.

“It was big,” Reyesmejia said. “I knew going in we had to beat Worland. We had to beat them to have a three-way tie in the quadrant.”

Senior Shelby Nicholson scored in the game’s fifth minute, freshman keeper Gabby Hirsch made six saves and the quadrant rivals played a scoreless final 75 minutes as the Panthers got the season-extending win.

Hirsch took a long through ball down the left wing, sprinted past two Worland defenders, cut toward the goal and took a hard-angled left-footed shot from seven yards out.

Every Warriors attempt to tie the game was turned away by the Panthers.

Worland took back-to-back corner kicks in the 15th minute but never sent anything Hirsch’s way. Hirsch made saves in the 21st and 23rd minute, but was largely untested in the first half.

The scariest moment for the Panthers occurred in the 63rd minute, when a scramble for the ball right in front of the Powell net gave Worland numerous attempts at a point blank shot. The crowded box, however, prevented any shot from reaching Hirsch and the Panthers eventually cleared the ball far from the flurry.

Of the three weekend matches, Friday’s 3-0 loss against No. 2 Star Valley was the Panthers’ least favorable as far the scoreboard goes, but Reyesmejia said it was one of the best games his team played this season.

“Out of all the games I was so proud of them for the fact that they just fought,” Reyesmejia said. “They know they can play against Star Valley.”

The coach saw a huge improvement from the April 11 tilt against a physical and aggressive Star Valley, which pushed the Panthers around in a 4-1 loss.

“I felt before we were kind of bullied out of spots,” Reyesmejia said. “And I thought (on Friday) the girls really played hard and didn’t give up on any plays.”

Still, Reyesmejia said his team should have prevented two of Star Valley’s three goals. A penalty kick score and a shot that sailed over an out-of-position Hirsch put Powell in a hole in an otherwise evenly matched game. Hirsch made 10 saves on 15 shots.

The coach also said shaky midfield defense put extra pressure on the Panthers’ back line, leading to more chances for Star Valley.

The Panthers were shut out for the second straight day Saturday in Jackson. The Broncs scored in the first half and Powell failed to convert its late game chances to knot it up.

Reyesmejia said “we had three really good opportunities at the end that we missed.”

He also gave credit to Jackson’s keeper.

“We made her work,” Reyesmejia said.

Hirsch made eight saves to keep the Panthers close.

Powell had trouble creating scoring threats during the road trip and has been shut out in three of its past four games.

“We just could not generate good flow with the offense as far as generating shots on goal,” Reyesmejia said. “We were getting shots on goal but not the quality of shots on goal I would have liked.”

Powell recorded 10 shots on goal in both weekend losses.

The Panthers will have a full week of practice to figure out how to score against the Torrington Trailblazers, who look to be, on paper, an evenly matched opponent.

Powell and Torrington’s common opponents are Lander, Buffalo, Douglas and Newcastle. Powell beat both Douglas (1-0) and Newcastle (7-0) on April 12 at the Worland Invitational, while Torrington was 4-0 in two games with each. The Panthers lost 3-0 in Lander May 2 and 6-1 at home vs. Buffalo April 25. Torrington lost 3-0 (March 29) and 6-0 (April 25) to Lander and 4-0 to Buffalo (April 11).

The Trailblazers finished the regular season with four straight wins. Throughout 13 regular season games Torrington had 30 goals both for and against, compared to the Panthers’ 23 goals for (including the three scored during the forfeit against Pinedale March 22) and 29 against.