Wrapping up the regular season with a rivalry game against the top team in the 3A West, the Powell Panther boys’ soccer team fell 3-0 to the Cody Broncs on Friday, dropping the Panthers to the No. 4 seed heading into state.

CODY 3, POWELL 0

The Panthers (7-6 overall, 5-5 3A West) had a small chance to move up in the standings, as a victory against the Broncs (13-1 overall, 9-1 3A West) would move them closer in the battle against Lander and Mountain View for a higher seed.

Powell battened down the hatches early and attempted to prevent the attack of the high scoring Broncs, defending strongly against the hosts and looking to score on the counterattack.

Unfortunately for Powell, the hosts struck first, as a ball played across the box was tapped into the back of the net and made it 1-0 Cody.

The Panthers held out any more additional damage the rest of the first half, as they trailed 1-0 heading into the halftime break.

“Considering Cody is the team with the most offense in the state, I think we did a great job of stifling their attacks,” coach David Gilliatt said. “Their first goal was really good and they caught us on the counter but I thought we did a good job outside of that one goal. We still clearly have some room to improve on our transitions.”

A chippy second half led to a number of incidents between the two teams, resulting in an injury to the Panther keeper in addition to a second yellow card to a Panther. That led to a red card and forced the Panthers to play down a man with 24:30 minutes left in the game.

“I thought the second yellow on Jesus [Vazquez] was really harsh considering it was for ‘dissent’ against another player,” Gilliatt said. “If you make that call as an official, you have to make it throughout the game and it’s impossible to catch all the verbal exchanges between players.”

Despite all the incidents, the Panthers only trailed 1-0, before a ball slipped through the hands of the Panther keeper with 19:30 minutes left.

Cody added one more goal late after a penalty was called for a foul by the Panthers, as the Broncs ended with the 3-0 win.

STATE TOURNAMENT

Powell now heads on the road, making the trip to Gillette for the 3A State Championships starting Thursday.

The Panthers are set to match up with Buffalo (9-5 overall, 9-1 3A East) at 11 a.m. Thursday. The Bison took the top spot in the east after winning tiebreakers against Torrington which were determined late Sunday night.

“I don’t imagine we’ll change our strategy greatly either way but we will look to fine tune it depending on which team we face,” Gilliatt said Sunday afternoon. “Each team has a couple of key players we would focus on.”

Despite the loss in the final regular season game, Gilliatt still feels positively about the progress the Panthers have made to this point in the year and wants them to keep their late season momentum going and not derail their progress.

“It’s important that we don’t see the loss to Cody as something that derails our momentum,” Gilliatt said. “We need to view it as a good exercise to illustrate some additional areas of improvement, including controlling our emotions. It should also be encouraging that we played them (Cody) as closely as we did both times despite the scoreline indicating otherwise.”

If Powell wins that contest it will face the winner of the west No. 2 seed Lander (9-3 overall, 7-3 3A West) and the east No. 3 seed Worland (6-8 overall, 5-5 3A East) at 4 p.m. on Friday.

If Powell loses it will play again at 11 a.m. on Friday against the loser of that contest.

All games on Thursday and Friday will be at the Energy Capital Sports Complex in Gillette, while games on Saturday will be dependent on the placement game with the championship game at 1 p.m. at Thunder Basin High School.

3A BOYS STATE TOURNAMENT

All games at Energy Capital Sports Complex Thursday and Friday, games on Saturday at three sites

THURSDAY

Game 1 — 11 a.m. No. 2W Lander vs. No. 3E Worland

Game 2 — 11 a.m. No. 1E Buffalo vs. No. 4W Powell

Game 3 — 4 p.m. No. 2E Torrington vs. No. 3W Mountain View

Game 4 — 4 p.m. No. 1W Cody vs. No. 4E Rawlins

FRIDAY

Game 5 — 11 a.m. Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2

Game 6 — 11 a.m. Loser Game 3 vs. Loser Game 4

Game 7 — 4 p.m. Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2

Game 8 — 4 p.m. Winner Game 3 vs. Winner Game 4

SATURDAY

Game 9 — 11 a.m. Winner Game 5 vs. Winner Game 6 (Consolation championship, Energy Sports Complex)

Game 10 — 11 a.m. Loser Game 7 vs. Loser Game 8 (Third place, Campbell County HS)

Game 11 — 1 p.m. Winner Game 7 vs. Winner Game 8 (Championship, Thunder Basin HS)