WHITEFISH - For the Whitefish girls this season, letting three goals go by is a wake-up call.

The first-place Bulldogs allowed three goals in the opening of the second half, and that was just enough to startle them back to life, and the squad went on to score five unanswered goals and defeat Libby 9-3 on Tuesday.

It was the ninth-straight victory for Whitefish (10-1 overall, 7-0 in Northern A).

"It's good to see how they reacted," Whitefish coach Erin Morrison said of the team's bounce back. "That needs to happen to us sometimes. We can't go shutout to shutout, then when someone scores on you, you're not sure how to react. I was proud of how we reacted today."

Natalie Gayner had three goals and an assist, Presley Pritchard had two goals and Sam Dittman added a goal and four assists for Whitefish.

Whitefish travels to second-place rival Columbia Falls on Saturday for the 11 a.m. regular-season finale.

Libby 0 3 - 3

Whitefish 4 5 - 9

WF - Natalie Gayner (Karissa DeMarco), 14:00

WF - Gayner (Sam Dittman), 20:00

WF - Presley Pritchard, 25:00

WF - Gayner (Dittman), 30:00

L - Brianna Odland, 42:00

L - Jaime Gilden, 50:00

L - Jenny Johnson, 53:00

WF - Pritchard (Dittman), 62:00

WF - DeMarco (Dittman), 68:00

WF - DeMarco (Gayner), 69:00

WF - Dittman (Maggie Frankino), 73:00

WF - Caroline Carbo, 78:00

Shots on goal - Libby 5, Whitefish 35; Goalie saves - Libby 17 (Sara Nash),

Whitefish 1 (Madison Cross); Corner kicks - Libby 0, Whitefish 7; Fouls - Libby 3, Whitefish 10; Cards - Whitefish, yellow.

Boys

Libby 2, Whitefish 2

WHITEFISH - Whitefish fell about two goals and one player but rallied back to salvage a Northern A tie with Libby in boys soccer on Tuesday.

After losing a player to a red card following a hand ball near the goalie, Whitefish fell behind 1-0 after Libby's James Hare scored unassisted. In the opening of the second half, Andrew Peterson notched a second Logger goal to put Libby up 2-0.

Senior co-captain Jack Steele scored twice, including a game-tying goal in the final two minutes for Whitefish.

"Our guys could have easily shut up shop and made a bunch of excuses, but they fought with amazing courage and they battled back," Whitefish coach O'Brien Byrd said. "I was really proud of the character we saw out there today. I'm really happy for Jack Steele. He got us back into the game."

Whitefish has clinched a playoff spot for next week's Class A opener. The Bulldogs will play a nonconference game at Stillwater Christian at 2 p.m. on Saturday in the regular-season finale.

Libby 1 1 - 2

Whitefish 0 2 - 2

L - James Hare, 40:00

L - Andrew Peterson (Crawford Dinning), 47:00

WF - Jack Steele, 50:00

WF - Steele (Curran Edland), 80:00

Shots on goal - Libby 10, Whitefish 7; Goalie saves - Libby 4 (David Brooks), Whitefish 12 (Chance Ling); Corner kicks - Libby 5, Whitefish 6; Fouls - Libby 16, Whitefish 9; Cards - Whitefish, yellow, red.