JACKSON HOLE — Starting the Class 3A State Soccer Tournament with defending champion Jackson Hole on Thursday did Powell High School no favors.

And a consolation tilt with Lander Valley on Friday proved equally unhelpful.

After losing a 7-1 battle to eventual champion Jackson, PHS ended its season with a 3-1 loss to the Lander Tigers in Jackson Hole.

Powell, who finished fourth at the state tournament a year ago, finished this season at 6-13.

Jackson 7, Powell 1

Powell had dropped three regular-season bouts to the Broncs, being outscored 17-1 in the matches.

That theme carried over into the teams’ final match as Jackson again proved too much for the Panthers. In light of the result, PHS head coach Travis Rapp said his players put in a solid effort.

“We actually played a little better than the score makes it look,” Rapp said. “Jackson’s a strong team, and they put a lot of goals on us, and that happens sometimes when you’re playing good teams.”

Powell senior Heston Swenson broke up the shutout with a score on a free kick in the 31st minute that made it a 4-1 game.

Junior goalkeeper Sean Wagner had 20 saves for Powell.

“Sean stuck in there and still played a fantastic game,” Rapp said.

The Panther offense managed eight shots, with four coming on goal.

Lander 3, Powell 1

Despite being blown out in the opener, the Panthers came back Friday with some fight in their match against Lander.

“Before the game, I told my guys that there’s two types of people: the kind that want to go home early and the kind that want to come out and play hard and finish the tournament the best they can,” Rapp said.  “The kids came out hard, we possessed the ball really well when in the first 15 minutes of the game, but Lander got a transition goal on us and it kind of took us out of our game.”

Lander’s Noah Peschio broke away from the PHS defense in the 14th minute and sank a shot into the right corner of the net that made it 1-0 in favor of the Tigers.

Powell generated a few opportunities, especially off the feet of junior Trey Ouellette and sophomore T.J. Abraham, but were mostly unsuccessful with their attack.

“We’ve scored on a lot of (corner kicks) and throw-ins, but the ball didn’t bounce the way we needed it to,” Rapp said. “That’s just the way life is sometimes.”

In the 23rd minute, Daniel Lobera gave Lander a 2-0 cushion when his low shot, again to the right corner, snuck past Wagner.

Things got a little animated around the 30th minute of the game when Wagner drew contact on a save. The keeper slid to grab a shot near the right corner of the PHS box, and just as he hit the ground, a Lander player went to kick the ball, only to pull up and seemingly drag his foot over Wagner’s head and neck. The contact brought Wagner to his feet, where he shoved the culprit before receiving a yellow card.

Wagner was sent to the sidelines for a moment to gather himself while sophomore Owen Dent manned the PHS net. Wagner eventually assumed his position and drew praise from his coach for maintaining his composure for the rest of the game.

“We’ve seen Sean mature a lot in the last few years,” Rapp said. “He kind of got kicked in the head by a Lander kid, and he got up to defend himself. Credit to both teams to come in and separate the guys and keep it from getting bigger than it needed to be.”

Wagner had 21 saves.

Powell made it interesting in the 53rd minute when a scramble near the Lander net ended with an Abraham touch that the Lander goalie fielded just past his goal line for a Panther score.

“That was an interesting goal that reminded me a lot of the goal that Star Valley won (3-2 overtime on May 16) with at our place,” Rapp recalled. “That really put a lot of life into the team.”

The potential PHS rally was stalled however when Lobera struck again with an insurance goal in the 70th minute.

“Textbook turn, farside post. Just a good individual effort by (Lobera) to seal the game,” Rapp said.

Ouellete was among several Panthers shaken up by the defeat, and the team captain expressed his disappointment following the loss.

“Obviously Lander is a great team ... we didn’t expect to come here and blow them out of the water,” Ouellette said. “ ...but we did expect to play our best, which we did ... we gave our effort.

“But there’s things we could’ve done that we didn’t do that could’ve put us up, and we didn’t get it done.”

Despite the rough end to the season, Rapp said he’s excited for what the future holds for his program, as the Panthers will return a large portion of its starters next spring.

“We replaced a lot this year and we weren’t sure what we were going to have. It was great to see guys learn together and mature together,” Rapp said. “We played overtime games, we played shootouts, we played a man up, we played a man down, we played with a lead, we came back from a deficit ... so we were about as prepared as you can be coming into state.

“For them to experience all of that this young, that’s a lot of great experience going into the future.”