Pirates’ defense gets them the 1-0 road playoff victory over

Park

LIVINGSTON - Polson is back in the Final Four.

The Pirates won their first-round playoff game against Park High School last Saturday thanks to a goal from offensive guru James "The Lawman" Larson for the 1-0 victory.

"It stayed physical the whole time," Polson head coach Jess Kittle said. "We had a couple of kids get injured and couple of kids had blood drawn. It was a rough game and the crowd was getting into it."

The Pirates had defeated Park 1-0 thanks to a James Larson goal earlier this season at home in Polson, but due to the way the bracket was set up with the seeding, the Pirates had to make the trip down to Livingston for the playoff battle.

Kittle made sure his team was ready, heading down on Friday and making sure they had a kick around at one of the local soccer fields before hand. It paid off, and in the 18th minute of the game, senior Jon Murphy sent a long free kick over the top of the Park defense and it went directly to Larson.

"James sprinted right through the defense hit it off his head, turned around and got to the ball first before the keeper," Kittle said. "It was very similar to the first goal he had against Park."

Since the goal was relatively early in the game, both teams had to grind it out for over 62 more minutes of the kind of tense soccer that makes you have to reach for a bottle of Tums. Polson also went into defensive mode in the second half, and thanks to goalkeeper Peregrine "The Falcon" Frissell, Nick "The Hammer" Howell, Caden "The Baron" von Wildenradt, Jon "Megatron" Murphy, Jacob Raymond and Spencer Raymond made sure nothing got past them.

"The way they were peppering us and we were hunkering back, you were just hoping to withstand them," Kittle said. "It was a shutout and you can't have any better defensive situation than a shutout."

Murphy dominated the midfield playing defense, while "the Hammer" Howell put on his own defensive clinic.

"Nick was getting to practically everything in the defensive third of the field," Kittle said.

Good thing too, as Park had a guy that could place corner kicks like a surgeon, but luckily Howell and company were able to neutralize the threat.

"Every one of those corner kicks he sent was good and it was scary every time," Kittle said.

Polson was outshot 7-3 in the game but "The Falcon" came up with seven huge saves for the Pirates. There were plenty of corner kicks, 14 in all with nine by Park, and both teams combined for 20 fouls.

The Pirates are now just one win away from the state championship game, a position they were in last year against Belgrade before an infamous "crossbar goal" call by the refs knocked them out of the playoffs.

"Hopefully we can use it as fuel," Kittle said.

Their opponent is the No. 1 Southern Conference seed, Hamilton, a squad that the Pirates tied 2-2 in their first game of the season.

Kittle said that both teams should expect a battle this time around.

"It's going to be a real tough game," Kittle said. "It's going to be a different Hamilton team because they were without their sweeper when we played them. Hopefully we've made enough of an improvement."

The Pirates certainly have momentum, advancing to their second Final Four in a row.

"That's definitely a major accomplishment," Kittle said.

Polson will play at noon this Saturday in Hamilton.

POLSON 1, PARK 0

Polson - 1 - 0 - 1

Park - 0 - 0 - 0

SCORING SUMMARY

Polson - James Larson (Jon Murphy) 18:00

Shots on Goal - Polson 3, Park 7

Saves - Polson 7

(Peregrine Frissell), Park 2 (Kyle

Lavender)

Corner Kicks - Polson 5, Park 9

Fouls - Polson 10, Park 10

Yellow Cards - Polson 2

Red Cards - none