Girls delay opener until Friday

The Powell High School boys’ soccer team opened its season with a pair of victories in Worland on Saturday. The Panthers fell to Rock Springs, but bounced back with wins over Rawlins and Douglas.

Powell’s girls had also been scheduled to open the year at a jamboree event in Cody on Saturday. Due to illness and absence, the Panther girls were unable to furnish enough players to field a squad at the season-opening event. The Panther girls will instead open their season this Friday with a home game against Buffalo.

The game will be the first official contest on Powell’s new all-weather turf field near the high school.

For Powell’s boys, the weekend started off rough. The Panthers opened jamboree play with a full-length game against Class 4A Rock Springs. The contest was made rougher by the Panthers’ lack of several projected starters this season as illness and conflictng school events cost the team a number of players, including all four of its rostered goaltenders.

The final score reflected many of those struggles as Rock Springs was able to post a 5-0 victory over the Panthers.

The afternoon sessions of activity featured half-length games against Rawlins and Douglas. The shorter games and 3A competition proved more to the Panthers’ liking. Powell scored a 3-1 win over Rawlins and wrapped up its opening day with a 3-0 shutout of Douglas.

“It was a much better weekend than I expected us to have,” said Panther head coach Travis Rapp. “We struggled a bit against Rock Springs, which wasn’t too surprising given the number of kids we had playing at new positions. Rock Springs is a solid team.”

Against Rawlins and Douglas, however, the Panthers looked more at home.

Tyler Ouellette opened the scoring for Powell against Rawlins by collecting a loose ball and winning the one-on-one against the Rawlins keeper. Rawlins tied the contest at intermission, but sophomore Emilio Raya took a Blake Schwan feed and put it in goal for what turned out to be the gamewinner.

Those two would hook up again, only in reverse as Schwan sent home a Raya assist to cap the scoring and provide the Panthers with some late-game insurance.

By the final game, the Panthers were a bit banged up and had to play the contest with just 11 players, the minimum needed. Although short on subs, Powell was able to produce a shutout victory over Douglas.

“Defensively, we played well,” said Rapp. “We had three guys back on defense that probably won’t be there this week when everyone gets back. Charles Wittick got a shutout in goal — he may never play there again, but he got his shutout. We played well defensively with a ragged lineup.”

Ouellette scored two of Powell’s three goals. Schwan added the third and also assisted on one of Ouellette’s scores. Freshman Jeffrey Pool had the only other assist in the game.

Both the boys’ and the girls’ soccer teams are expected to be closer to full strength this week as the regular season continues. The Panther boys (2-1) travel east for a Friday game at Buffalo (2-0). The Bison opened the season with a 1-0 win over Gillette, then needed overtime to score a 4-2 victory over Natrona.

Kickoff in the contest is scheduled for 5 p.m.

Powell’s girls look to open the year at home against Buffalo (0-2), also in a 5 p.m., Friday contest. Buffalo’s girls fell 5-0 to Gillette and 6-1 to Natrona in opening-weekend action.

Both Powell teams will be in action at home on Saturday. Kickoff will be at 11 a.m. as Powell hosts Pinedale (2-0-1) in girls’ action. The Panther boys will also take on Pinedale (1-2) with kickoff scheduled for 1 p.m.