After a difficult pair of days the Powell Panther boys’ soccer team failed to advance to the third day at the state tournament, as the Panthers fell to eventual third placed Buffalo 6-0 in the opening game and lost 6-2 to Torrington in the consolation round in Gillette.

BUFFALO 6, POWELL 0

The Panthers (6-9) took on the defending champion Bison (9-1) in a blustery, rainy competition on Thursday to start the weekend.

Buffalo wasted no time getting on the board, as a well-worked goal found the back of the net just a minute into the contest.

Powell held out more opportunities early, but the Bison doubled their lead in the first half on a near post header from a corner kick that made it 2-0 with 8:47 left as Buffalo led 2-0 at the break.

A mistake at the back allowed the Bison to make it a three goal lead 8:30 into the second half, and a quick goal followed to make it 4-0 just 25 seconds later.

Buffalo made it five on a free kick in the 59th minute, and another was deflected in just 45 seconds later as the Bison rolled to the 6-0 win.

“I thought we did as much as we could to prepare for Buffalo in the week leading up to state,” coach David Gilliatt said. “The early goal was less than ideal of course. Honestly, Buffalo just had a lot of talent in their midfield and had multiple players who could score as well. We tried to man mark their best overall player who they use to originate the majority of their attacks, but even then, they had players who were impactful.”

TORRINGTON 6, POWELL 2

Heading into Saturday the Panthers matched up with the east No. 3-seed Trailblazers (9-7).

Again an early goal put the Panthers behind, as they fell behind just seven minutes into the game and another followed at the 15 minute mark as Powell trailed 2-0.

“The second game after you lose at state is always the most psychologically difficult. You know you are out of the running, but still have to lock in for another game,” Gilliatt said. 

This time Powell got on the board just before the half, as Noah Young used a strong run through the defense and fired home a shot to the side netting to make it 2-1 just over a minute left in the first half.

Unfortunately for the Panthers, Torrington didn’t slow down early in the second half.

Goals 6:30 in and 12:30 in quickly extended the lead out to 4-1, and a goal directly off a corner kick went in with 4:25 left to make it 5-1.

Young added a second, as his shot from the edge of the box found its way into the top corner to make it 5-2 with
1:34 left.

“The one bright spot in that game was Noah,” Gilliatt said. “It was really good from him considering he is one of our newest guys to the sport — this is only his second season playing.”

Another goal snuck in for the Trailblazers at the buzzer, as the Panthers fell 6-2.

“As a team, I thought Torrington was a good matchup for us, but they had one very skilled player who I would argue is the most talented senior in the state for 3A,” Gilliatt said. “Unfortunately, he proved too skillful, even when he was getting double teamed by my guys. He was definitely the difference maker in that game with three goals and an assist.”

CONTINUE GROWING

The Panthers will lose several seniors from this year’s starting lineup, but will have plenty of talent returning for a team that had limited experience to begin the year at the varsity level.

“I think we are in a really good place to keep improving. I’m hoping a lot of the guys ended the season with the motivation to work on themselves and their technical abilities,” Gilliatt said. “We are still playing catch up from an experience standpoint, but I’m excited to see what improvement these guys can make in the offseason.”

He said this will be one of the final seasons the Panthers don’t have players with significant club experience, as he believes in the coming years the program will close the gap once again at the top and make another run at the program’s first state title, but that all begins at the youth levels.

“We really need the local soccer clubs like Heart Mountain to keep developing players. We are experiencing a bit of a gap right now where we don’t have many players with competitive club experience. As a result we have to focus more on fundamental skills and basic strategies but that only goes so far against guys who have already developed these skills,” Gilliatt said. “We will likely have one to two more seasons where we don’t have a full team of experienced players. This really makes the difference when we are facing tougher opponents who have 12-15 guys with years of competitive club experience under their belt.”

He feels that Powell Middle School is helping the development of the high school program, but would love to see it as a supplement to “what that local club is doing rather than replace it.”

He also feels that the younger programs should focus on development rather than winning.

“I realize this is difficult to do for parents and players. Everyone enjoys winning. However, this player development priority can make all the difference when we see these players in high school,” Gilliatt said. “I would correlate the most successful years at PHS soccer to the development that took place earlier at club soccer. That holds true for other sports in our community. I’m hoping we can continue to strengthen these youth programs to consistently produce fundamentally sound soccer players who can be successful at the high school and even college levels.”