Panthers finish 6-6, earn automatic bid to state  

A 1-0 victory over Worland Thursday evening was enough to clinch a postseason berth for the Powell High School boys’ soccer team.

The Panthers (6-6, 3-1 Northwest) won their quadrant and earned an automatic bid to the state tournament, both firsts for the PHS program, with the home finale victory.

“That was one of the bigger games in the program’s history,” said PHS head coach Travis Rapp. “That wrapped up the school’s first automatic bid to state.”

Powell didn’t actually need to win, but needed to avoid a three-goal loss in order to take the Northwest title.

“Mentally, I think it’s a lot better that we won it outright,” Rapp said.

Senior Tyler Ouellette scored the game- and quadrant-winning goal in the 58th minute. The star striker beat his man one-on-one, streaked down the left side of the box and sent a sliding kick past the Worland keeper.

It took an exceptional individual effort for Powell to beat the Warriors’ focused defensive effort.

“Worland packed five defenders and sometimes dropped as many as seven guys in the box,” Rapp said. “It makes it difficult scoring that way just numbers-wise.”

Though the Panthers beat Worland 2-0 in their first meeting April 4, Rapp knew the rematch was going to be tougher.

“From the moment we won the first game I went, ‘The second game is going to be 100 times more difficult,’” Rapp said.

Rapp called the Warriors a “young, well-coached team” and predicted “those teams are always going to improve a lot throughout the season.”

With Worland out of the picture for now the Panthers have two weeks until they play their first-round match against the winner of Pinedale vs. Douglas (Friday).

Rapp said he plans to give his players some much-needed rest before installing a few new wrinkles to their formations.

Powell played three games in three days and has a few players who have been battling injuries for some or most of the season.

Sophomore Trey Ouellette sprained his ankle in the Worland game and senior Noah Katz has been dealing with a foot injury for much of the year. Powell will need both at or near 100 percent to have a chance to make some noise at state.

“We’re going to rest a few guys here in the next two or three days,” Rapp said.

Powell may face a familiar opponent in the first round and is almost certain to advance to the semifinals.

“We’ll put in a couple situational formations for state,” Rapp said. “Some stuff that we want to do if we get up a goal or two and need to hold a lead or in case we’re down and need to score in a rush.

“(We’ll) put in a couple new things that our opponents haven’t seen.”

Powell downed Pinedale 7-0 in the season- and home opener and then again 5-2 on the road, but Rapp said he doesn’t spend much time hoping to draw one first-round opponent over another.

“I never really put much thought into that,” Rapp said. “I believe that if we go out and play our game and play the way we can play we can beat anybody in the state, so it doesn’t really matter who we play.”

Pinedale (2-10, 0-3 Southwest) and Douglas (4-10-1, 2-2 Northeast) have both struggled this season, and would be underdogs against the Panthers. Douglas scored 20 goals through 15 games and Pinedale managed only 14 through 12 contests (results for Saturday’s match against Rawlins are not yet available and the Wranglers finish their season today (Tuesday) against Jackson). Powell beat Pinedale twice this season.

“Either team I think we can go out and play well and compete against them and beat them,” Rapp said.

Powell sustained losses in its final two regular season games: 5-0 at Star Valley Friday and 9-0 at Jackson Saturday.

With their seed at state already determined, the Panthers used those games to rest their starters and give playing time to the JV squad.

Trey Ouellette didn’t play at all after the Worland game. Katz, Tyler Ouellette and Emilio Raya Jr. also played sparingly over the weekend.

Rapp said only four or so varsity players remained on the field by the second half of each game and that he wanted to give “some of our younger guys the opportunity to see the speed of a varsity game.”

The coach was pleased with the way his bench performed, especially against a Star Valley team looking to find a few more goals toward the end of the match.

“I was really proud of our JV team, they were able to hold them scoreless,” Rapp said.

Sophomore keeper Sean Wagner was battling illness and senior Mark Bullinger ended up playing the second half against Star Valley and about three-quarters of the game in Jackson.

“He made quite a few good saves,” Rapp said. “We were very impressed with what he did and made us feel comfortable if Sean happened to go down.”

Neither the losses, nor the final scores, will affect the team’s morale, Rapp said.

“Going into the Star Valley game we talked about resting guys and the guys knew what we were doing,” Rapp said.

Win or lose, the outcomes of the final games had little impact on Powell’s season, which was, for all intents and purposes, over after Thursday.

The goal all season long was winning the quadrant and advancing to state.

Now that the Panthers have done that, the second season begins.