The Heart Mountain U10 soccer team turned in a solid spring season, posting fourth-place finishes in the Snickers and State cups and continuing to show improvement with each tournament.

Led by head coach Kevin French and assistant coaches Pat D’Alessandro and Jessica Lum, the U10 posted a 4-5-2 record in three tournaments; results for the Cody Shootout were unavailable at press time. At the season-ending State Cup in Casper, Heart Mountain finished just two points shy of third place.

“Heart Mountain U10 is a great group of kids,” French said. “I know the kids will continue to build their skills, and it’s been a pleasure to see them develop all season long.”

Magic City Classic-Billings

Heart Mountain started the season strong with a taste of everything, going 1-1-1 at the Magic City Classic in Billings April 27-28.

“Overall, I feel we had a good first tournament to start the year ...,” French said. “It was a team effort overall that ended up with us placing second out of four in our bracket and fourth overall in a field of eight teams.”

Against the SC Storm in the tournament opener, Heart Mountain battled to a 2-2 tie. Levi Rogers had an early goal to set the tone, while Knox Johnson’s timely goal in the final moments of the second half secured the tie. Defenders Ava Brewer and Riley Douglas “stood strong as a defensive duo, helping us to tie the contest,” French said.

Heart Mountain then squared off against Real Billings and fell 4-1. Ily Williams scored the team’s lone goal on a nice takeaway in the second half to spoil the shutout.

Heart Mountain bounced back in a big way in the third round, shutting out Gillette Edge-Black 5-0. Gianreye D’Alessandro switched from keeper to forward in the second half and notched a hat trick, scoring three goals. Carter Fauskee was “aggressive in goal in the 5-0 shutout win,” according to French.

The Sunday morning game “was a very cold contest,” he said, “but we fought through the wind chill for a win to close out our weekend.”

He said the coaches “watched a number of strengths in our players and player dynamics develop,” through the tournament.

Snickers Cup-Sheridan

Heart Mountain traveled to Sheridan May 4-5 for the Snickers Cup and got off to a fast start, winning its first two games en route to a 2-2 record and a fourth-place finish.

“Overall, I feel we played much better than our results in this tournament show,” French said.  “We had some great wins and great scoring on Saturday, [May 4] ...The kids battled hard and definitely felt the weight of our losses, which is hard as a coach to see, because they did play hard all weekend and I feel deserved better.”

Against the Yellowstone Fire in the opener, Rogers and Gianreye D’Alessandro had a pair of goals each to lead Heart Mountain to a 5-4 win. Fauskee had a solid game in net in the win.

Carrying the momentum of an exciting win into the second round, Heart Mountain shut out Red Lodge 7-0. Braxton Nelson and Aspen French each had multiple goals in the win, and coach French was able to get every player on the roster some quality minutes on the pitch.

“It was an overall team effort, and we really came on strong and played our game in the second half of the contest,” he said.

Heart Mountain came back to earth in the third game, losing 6-0 to a talented Worland team.

“Carter Fauskee was tested often as goalie, and unfortunately we were unable to successfully defend against their onslaught of skilled forwards who were striking the ball exceptionally well in the contest,” French said.

The loss dropped Heart Mountain into the consolation final, where they lost a 2-1 heartbreaker to Rawlins. Gianreye D’Alessandro scored the lone goal for the U10.

“We had our chances to ultimately win third place, but fell short in our battle to secure it,” French said. “The kids overall fought very hard in a rainy and very cold game.”

State Cup-Casper

Heart Mountain ended its season at the State Cup in Casper May 25-26, posting a 1-2-1 record and finishing fourth.

“Our team played well overall, and showed the improvement we work for all year long,” coach French said. “We came up only two points shy of a third-place finish, but competed very hard overall.”

The U10 started strong, beating Rawlins 3-1 in the opening round. Gianreye D’Alessandro and Emery Hernandez found the back of the net for Heart Mountain in the win.

“It was a great overall team effort with a great display of passing and good spacing as a team,” French said of the win.

Heart Mountain run into a buzzsaw against eventual-champion Worland in the second round, losing 7-0.

“With us unable to keep sustained forward pressure on Worland, we were exposed to their strong shooting and were unable to stop them defensively,” French said.

Heart Mountain was able to shake off the difficult loss in the next game, rebounding with a 3-3 tie against the Yellowstone Fire. A number of controversial penalties skewed the game in Yellowstone’s favor, according to coach French, whose team trailed 3-1 at one point.

Heart Mountain battled back, however, behind goals from D’Alessandro and Levi Rogers to secure the tie.

Heart Mountain’s final game of the State Cup was a 3-1 loss to Rock Springs, with Aspen French scoring the lone goal for the U10 in the contest. The loss knocked the team out of medal contention.

“Unfortunately, we were not able to win the contest and play in the championship match,” coach French said, adding, “Again, the kids competed very hard.”