COLUMBIA FALLS — Columbia Falls moved senior captain Lindsay Strouse from her position at center forward out wide left ahead of its Class A playoff match against Stevensville on Saturday. The move resulted in three goals and an assist, equaling her point total from the regular season, in a 5-0 blowout of Stevensville at Flip Darling Field.

“We played her on the left, who knew?” Wildkats coach Greg Trenerry said.

“We just started putting her on the left in practice. She has a pretty good cross from the left, we thought we’d stick her out there. She did pretty good.”

The win advances the Wildkats (8-1-4) to a semifinal match at six-time defending state champions Billings Central (11-0-2) on Saturday. Columbia Falls played the Rams to a scoreless tie at home earlier this season. It is a rematch of the 2012 state title game that saw B.C. win 6-0.

The Wildkats got the offense going early against Stevensville, just missing three chances in the first eight minutes before a beautiful goal in the ninth. Junior forward Ellie Johnson streaked up the right side of the field and let loose a cross into the box that landed perfectly at the feet of Strouse crashing the goal from the left side, who buried the first score of the game.

After the goal, however, Columbia Falls had trouble keeping possession in the midfield and narrowly avoided an equalizer before half. Yellowjackets senior midfielder Carly Sebastian got around her defender and ballhandled past another before ripping a point-blank shot at the goal. Wildkats keeper Alyson Gimbel got the better of the exchange, deflecting the attempt away where Columbia Falls regained possession, gripping a 1-0 lead at halftime.

“We let up a little bit [in the first half],” Trenerry said. “Which happens. It took us awhile to get going.

“I talked to them at half, I told them, ‘Hey, you guys don’t look like a team that should move on.’ And they came out and played well in the second half.”

Very little of the match was played in the Columbia Falls end after halftime, with the Yellowjackets struggling even to gain possession, finishing the match with just three shots on goal and one corner kick, which came in the waning seconds.

Strouse set the tone for the half early, recording a highlight goal, playing around one defender and through another before beating the keeper for her second score. She scored another five minutes later, stripping a defender trying to knock down a back pass and placing the ball inside the right post to complete her hat trick.

Hannah Gedlaman, who had missed a handful of chances earlier in the match including a shot that went of the crossbar, found some scoring karma in the 70th minute. The freshman saw a deflected pass trickle into the goal for the Wildkats fourth of the afternoon to get on the score sheet.

Five minutes after that, Lottie Ellis found a cross from Strouse deflected to her unmarked in front of the goal and in turn found the back of the net to cap the scoring.

Stevensville 0 0 — 0

Columbia Falls 1 4 — 5

CF — Lindsay Strouse (Ellie Johnson), 9:00

CF — Strouse (Mace Sandefer), 48:00

CF — Strouse (Skye Hatfield), 53:00

CF — Hannah Gedlaman (Haley Gemmrig), 70:00

CF — Lottie Ellis (Strouse), 75:00

Shots on goal — Stevi 3, CF 20. Saves — Stevi 7 (Evelyn Tiplady), CF 3 (Alyson Gimbel). Corner kicks — Stevi 1, CF 3. Fouls — Stevi 3, CF 9. Cards — none.

Whitefish 2, Hamilton 1

HAMILTON — Whitefish sophomore Haley Nicholson, who left the pitch early in the first half after being headbutted, scored 25 seconds after her return to net the game winner for the Bulldogs.

The state’s leading scorer, Nicholson scored the goal seconds after Hamilton notched an equalizer in the match. The Broncs’ Kendal Gordon scored to match the score at 1-1, answering a goal from Whitefish’s Grace Kurtz that came in the 23rd minute.

“We played great,” Whitefish coach Wendy Farrens said. “The players did what we asked them to do. It was a hard-fought game on both sides. The team showed so much determination and heart today.”

The Bulldogs (6-5-2) advance to host Laurel (10-2-2) in the semifinals on Saturday.

Whitefish 2 0 — 2

Hamilton 1 0 — 1

W — Grace Kurtz (Kellie Brown), 23:00

H — Kendal Gordon (Reilly Rostad), 36:00

W — Haley Nicholson (Anna Peterson), 36:00

Shots — Whitefish 16, Hamilton 23. Shots on goal — Whitefish 8, Hamilton 14. Saves — Whitefish 12 (Kess Nelson), Hamilton 5 (Larami Schara). Corner kicks — Whitefish 2, Hamilton 5. Total fouls — Whitefish 6, Hamilton 7. Cards — none.

Laurel 1, Polson 0

LAUREL — Laurel’s Allie McGrath scored the only goal of the contest to advance the Locomotives past Polson.

Stats not available

Billings Central 5,

Corvallis 0

BILLINGS — The Rams had three goals at halftime and found another shortly afterwards to cruise to another semifinal match. Billings Central will host Columbia Falls on Saturday for a chance to return to the state finals for an eighth time in the last nine years.

Makayla Kinzel had two goals, both in the second half, and Mariah Wittman had a goal and two assists for the Rams.

Corvallis 0 0 — 0

Billings Central 3 2 — 5

BC — Josie Snyder (Mariah Wittman), 14:00

BC — Wittman (Julianna Arellano), 23:00

BC — Camryn Gunderson, 27:00

BC — Makayla Kinzel (Wittman), 48:00

BC — Kinzel (Olivia Hanser), 77:00

Shots — Billings Central 14, Corvallis 2. Saves — Billings Central 2 (Natalie Ruegsegger 2, Venton Arce 0). Corvallis 9 (Kira Doyle 5).