Weiser boys play in championship game at state

After receiving the title of Snake River Valley District Champions, the Wolverines went on to place second in the state for 3A schools.
 Weiser’s first two games in the state championships went into overtime, an indication of how evenly matched the 3A teams were in the tournament.  
 The state tournament began on Thursday, Oct. 24, with the boys going up against the Bonners Ferry Badgers. After winning that game, the Wolverines played Friday against the Sugar-Salem Diggers. A win over the Diggers sent the Wolverines on to play Saturday for the championship against the Sun Valley Community Cutthroats.
 Weiser coach Kathy Bokides was pleased with the way the boys played during the whole tournament.
 “As we progressed, the teams got harder. We played against all first seed teams,” she said.
Weiser vs. Bonners Ferry
Game 1
 The first game was in the morning on Thursday at Vallivue High School. The Wolverines played against the Bonners Ferry Badgers. The Badgers quickly pushed down to Weiser’s net, but keeper Gabe Rasmussen was able to save the ball several times.
 The Wolverines pushed back, and spent quite a bit of time on the Bonners Ferry side of the field. Weiser kept the Badgers’ goalie on his toes, and took multiple shots at the goal.
 With 80 seconds left in the first half, a foul was called on the Badgers by the half field line. Marcos Tarelo made the kick, and sent the ball into play by the Badger’s net. Ten seconds before the buzzer, Ander Barbot passed the ball to Chris Gonzales who was able to get it into the net.
 The first half ended with a 1-0 score in favor of Weiser.
 The second half played much like the first half. At 19 minutes in, Bonners Ferry’s goalie had control of the ball and put it down in preparation to kick. Another Badger player came up to take the kick, and picked up the ball to move it, but that resulted in a handball being called on the Badgers. Nathan Turner took the resulting kick, but it was saved by the Badger’s keeper.
 Badger Carson Spencer was able to get one ball past the Wolverine defense, which brought the score to a tied 1-1 at the 28 minute mark.
 Weiser made some big pushes in the last few minutes of the game, but the Badger’s goalie was determined to keep the score at a tie and blocked all their tries.
 Regulation time ended with a tied score of 1-1, sending the game into overtime.
 Turner made the “Golden Goal” just over 3 minutes into overtime, with a shot that was right at the top of the net over the goalie’s head.
 Bokides said it was exciting to see the team pull all the skills and strategies they’ve been working on together to get the win.
Weiser vs. Sugar-Salem
Game 2
 With the win over Bonners Ferry, the Wolverines moved forward in the tournament and played Friday against the Sugar-Salem Diggers at Vallivue.
 Both teams worked hard in a battle that went back and forth on the field. Each side took multiple shots at the goal, but it was Gonzales who put the first point on the board in a similar manner as the day before.
 This time there was 17 seconds left in the first half, when Tarelo sent the ball up the field to Gonzales. The Digger’s goalie ran forward to block, but Gonzales got the ball past him and in to put the score at 1-0 at half.
 It looked like Weiser was going to maintain that score for the rest of the game, but Sugar-Salem was determined to at least tie up the score. With less than a minute left on the clock in regulation time, Sugar-Salem pushed down to Weiser’s side of the field, crossed the ball, and made a goal.
 With only 44 seconds left on the clock, the Wolverines quickly pushed down the field and made a shot, but the Diggers’ keeper stopped it.
 The game went into overtime, and at 3 minutes in, it looked like Sugar-Salem was going to walk away with the “Golden Goal.” The ball was in front of Weiser’s net, and there was intense play, and during the action the Digger’s got the ball in the goal. The goal was then called no good due to offsides, and play continued.
 Neither side could break the tie, and the game went into its second overtime of 10 minutes. After being denied the goal in the first overtime, the Diggers came in aggressively, but Rasmussen was able to save all the shots they made.
 The next step to break a tie is a shootout. In a penalty kick shootout, each team picks 5 players to take turns making a penalty kick. Weiser’s line up went: Gonzales, Turner, Jordan Watkins, Ander Barbot, and then Tarelo.
 Both teams made their attempts until it came time for the 5th set. Weiser was going first, and Tarelo had made his shot. Sugar-Salem’s Nathan Dayley was up last, and his shot was blocked by Rasmussen.
 It looked that it was over, but Dayley was called back to the line to be given another chance because officials said Rasmussen’s feet left the line too early. Dayley took his shot again, but this time it went wide of the net. Weiser won based off of the 5-4 PK score.
 “I had a coach tell me a long time ago to practice those PK’s every day,” Bokides said. “We do. It makes a huge difference.”
 She pointed out that PK’s made the difference in 2017 at the state tournament also.
 “Our players were confident. We were ready for that,” she said. “They were excited. I’ve never seen a team excited like that. I was nervous, but excited too.”
 Bokides added that, “A few of our players weren’t feeling very well, so to pull through and play like they did, it was a huge feat.”
Weiser vs. Sun Valley
Championship game
 The 3A State Championship game was held in Middleton Saturday morning. It was the coldest and windiest game of the tournament, with players and fans alike huddling under blankets and wearing hats and gloves.
 The Wolverines went up against the Sun Valley Community School Cutthroats. The Cutthroats came on a mission to redeem themselves, after losses to Weiser in the state tournament in 2015 and 2017.
 The Cutthroats were immediately the aggressors, and in less than 4 minutes got the first goal. Cutthroat Willy DeWolfe was able to get under a ball and head it into the net past Rasmussen.
 The second goal was also scored by DeWolfe. At 12 minutes in, play was right in front of Weiser’s net, and it appeared that Rasmussen was able to deflect the ball back out into play. Weiser gained control of the ball and played on, until the whistle was blown at least 10 seconds later. The officials spoke to each other, and then called that the Cutthroat’s did make a goal.
 Weiser made several shots, but the wind either carried the ball over, or the Cutthroat’s keeper was able to save them. Halfway through the first half, Weiser almost got on the board. A foul was called on Sun Valley, and Turner took the resulting kick. His shot barely hit the top bar, ricocheted down into play, where it was kicked again and went out of bounds.
 DeWolfe made the third goal with a shot that was high and to the side after Sun Valley pushed down the field.
 In the last few minutes of the first half, the Wolverines tried to get on the board, but the Cutthroats keeper either blocked the shots, or the wind helped carry the ball over the net.
 Sun Valley increased their lead when Fletcher Stumph got a shot past Wolverine defenders, bringing the score to 4-0 in their favor, with just 44 seconds left on the clock.
 Sun Valley tried to increase their score during the second half, but Rasmussen and the Wolverine defense kept them locked down. The Cutthroats only points in the second half came from penalty kicks.
 Weiser’s Justin Estes had a foul called on him in the box, and Sun Valley’s keeper, Mikel DuPont came across the field to take the resulting penalty kick. His shot was good, and brought the score to 0-5 halfway through the second half.
 The Cutthroats received another penalty kick chance when a handball was called on Weiser in the box with 13:30 left to go. Ridley Lindstrom took the kick, and Rasmussen almost got the save. The ball barely crossed over the line before he was able to stop it. This brought the score to 0-6, where it stayed for the rest of the game.
 The Wolverines walked away from the battle with second place for Idaho’s 3A bracket.
 Bokides said they had done their homework, but DeWolfe was a surprise. He replaced the player she was expecting to be forward, but he was out with a concussion.
 “I have to give credit to my stat girls. Sometimes I’m looking at the big picture and not always able to pick out individual things going on. They pointed out it was number 4 (DeWolfe) that was breaking through.”
 Bokides said she made an adjustment, but it was too late. She put Watkins on DeWolfe because of his speed and abilities. The adjustment did keep DeWolfe from scoring again, but it couldn’t take back what had already happened.
 “The only scores they got the second half were from PKs,” Bokides pointed out.
 “Triston Kautz had a beautiful shot. There were two crossbar shots by Marcos and Nathan. If one of those had fallen in that would have made a little difference in the game,” she commented.
 “Our boys played with class, and we held our heads high,” Bokides said of the game and of the season.
 Speaking of the season play as a whole, Bokides said, “It was a really fun, growing season. Their relationships grew, our team grew, and we wouldn’t be where we were if they hadn’t put in the hard work.”
 “Already the kids are asking me ‘So next year can I play this position?’”, Bokides said, adding that she wasn’t ready to think about it yet.