Girls fall shy of Saturday playThe Powell Panthers are closing the gap on the state's 3A soccer powers. Despite that fact, soccer season finished in an all-too-familiar fashion for both the boys' and girls' teams at the state soccer tournament over the weekend. Powell's girls will have to wait another year to experience Saturday soccer in Sheridan. The Panthers, who needed less than two weeks this season to surpass last year's win count, fell 6-0 to Buffalo and 4-0 to Newcastle. “The game against Buffalo was won in the midfield just like we thought it would be,” said head coach Brad Hammond, directing his final games on the Panther sidelines.Hammond resigned the position earlier this season to focus his time on the Northwest College soccer program, where he serves as an assistant coach. The Trappers begin their inaugural season this fall. “The girls fought hard. We just didn't have the horses that Buffalo had,” said Hammond. “They were able to keep the pressure on and we came up short.”The opening-round loss dropped the Panthers into a Friday elimination game against a Newcastle team they had defeated in overtime earlier this season. This time around, the Dogies had all the answers on a windy day to post the shutout victory. “We had an incident early in the first half where Katie Kipp had a breakaway into the wind. She had the goalie beat,” said Hammond. “From our vantage point, we thought her shot had completely crossed the end line for a goal, but they ruled their defender had kicked the ball out, and they took it right down the field and scored on us. That sudden switch really took the wind out of us for a while and they were able to take advantage.”Following the state meet, four members of the Panthers' roster received 3A West awards. Junior defender Maddy Jones and junior midfielder Molly McCray each were named first-team all-conference members. Senior forward Katie Kipp and junior defender Leslie Thronburg were named members of the second team all-conference rosters.“That's one indication of how far we've come as a program,” said Hammond. “We've never had four kids get conference awards before.”On the boys' side, the Panthers narrowly missed picking up that elusive second victory at the state tournament. After dropping its opener against eventual state-champion Buffalo 2-0, the Panthers bounced back on Friday with a 4-0 shutout of Newcastle. In Saturday's consolation final, the Panthers were unable to get the ball in the net, losing by a slim 1-0 margin. Head coach Pat D'Alessandro was unavailable for comments on Monday. We hope to have more information on the Panther boys' state soccer tournament appearance in Thursday's paper.

Girls fall shy of Saturday play

The Powell Panthers are closing the gap on the state's 3A soccer powers. Despite that fact, soccer season finished in an all-too-familiar fashion for both the boys' and girls' teams at the state soccer tournament over the weekend.

Powell's girls will have to wait another year to experience Saturday soccer in Sheridan. The Panthers, who needed less than two weeks this season to surpass last year's win count, fell 6-0 to Buffalo and 4-0 to Newcastle.

“The game against Buffalo was won in the midfield just like we thought it would be,” said head coach Brad Hammond, directing his final games on the Panther sidelines.

Hammond resigned the position earlier this season to focus his time on the Northwest College soccer program, where he serves as an assistant coach. The Trappers begin their inaugural season this fall.

“The girls fought hard. We just didn't have the horses that Buffalo had,” said Hammond. “They were able to keep the pressure on and we came up short.”

The opening-round loss dropped the Panthers into a Friday elimination game against a Newcastle team they had defeated in overtime earlier this season. This time around, the Dogies had all the answers on a windy day to post the shutout victory.

“We had an incident early in the first half where Katie Kipp had a breakaway into the wind. She had the goalie beat,” said Hammond. “From our vantage point, we thought her shot had completely crossed the end line for a goal, but they ruled their defender had kicked the ball out, and they took it right down the field and scored on us. That sudden switch really took the wind out of us for a while and they were able to take advantage.”

Following the state meet, four members of the Panthers' roster received 3A West awards. Junior defender Maddy Jones and junior midfielder Molly McCray each were named first-team all-conference members. Senior forward Katie Kipp and junior defender Leslie Thronburg were named members of the second team all-conference rosters.

“That's one indication of how far we've come as a program,” said Hammond. “We've never had four kids get conference awards before.”

On the boys' side, the Panthers narrowly missed picking up that elusive second victory at the state tournament. After dropping its opener against eventual state-champion Buffalo 2-0, the Panthers bounced back on Friday with a 4-0 shutout of Newcastle. In Saturday's consolation final, the Panthers were unable to get the ball in the net, losing by a slim 1-0 margin.

Head coach Pat D'Alessandro was unavailable for comments on Monday. We hope to have more information on the Panther boys' state soccer tournament appearance in Thursday's paper.