Ten years later its Laurel and Columbia Falls battling once again for the Class A state girls soccer championship.

This time, the action takes place on the other end of the state.

Both teams will be at Flip Darling Field in Columbia Falls today for the 11 a.m. start.

Columbia Falls (9-1-4) is riding high after knocking off Billings Central 3-2 in overtime last week in the semifinal round in Billings.

Central was shooting for its seventh-straight state title. It was the first loss in 54 outings for the Rams.

Laurel (11-2-2), on the other hand, blanked Whitefish at Smith Fields in semifinal play 3-0.

The Locomotives will be playing in the Flathead Valley on back to back weekends and for the third time this fall.

Columbia Falls beat Laurel in 2004 on a Friday night in Laurel 6-1. That was the first, and only, state title for the Wildkats.

Laurel has not been in a championship match since then.

Columbia Falls finished 13-2 overall that year and was 13-0 versus Class A competition. The Wildkats closed the season with 10 straight victories.

“They don’t want to hear about that game,” Columbia Falls coach Greg Trenerry said of his current players.

“I have talked enough about that team and what they did.”

He said there are no similarities between the 2004 squad and his current one.

“They are totally different,” he said.

Laurel was in Columbia Falls for a regular-season meeting back in September. The Locomotives came out of that battle with a 3-2 win.

Columbia Falls had battled Billings Central the day before to a scoreless tie.

“Eighteen hours later,” Trenerry said of the Laurel game.

Columbia Falls led 1-0 and 2-1 in that one before Laurel came back to pull it out with Jessica Elmer’s goal at 75 minutes.

“We didn’t play great that day,” he said. “We ran out of gas.”

He also said there were no excuses for the setback.

“I think we match up well,” he said. “We know who they beat, who we beat and stuff like that.”

Trenerry said the team has refocused after the emotional victory at Billings Central.

“They won’t take them lightly,” he said of Laurel. “ I think they are ready.”

Columbia Falls’ last trip to a championship match was 2012 against Billings Central. That outing was held at Flip Darling Field and the Rams came away with a 6-1 victory.

“We had seven freshmen starting in that game,” Trenerry said. “The freshmen have all learned a lot (from that).

“They have been there,” he said of championship and playoff action. “They did great to get there.”

Columbia Falls beat Laurel in overtime and then won a shootout with Livingston in the semifinals to advance that year.

“Billings, they just killed us,” he said.

Columbia Falls has three seniors on this year’s roster — Meagan Seliger, a midfielder, Lindsay Strouse, a forward, and Skye Hatfield, a midfielder.

Strouse has nine goals and two assists to lead the offense. She has scored three goals in both playoff matches.

Ellie Johnson, a junior forward, has six goals and eight assists; Hannah Gedlaman, a freshman forward, has five goals and no assists; Katie Price, a junior midfielder, has four goals and three assists; and Lottie Ellis, a junior forward, has three goals.

Laurel is led by offensively by Allie McGrath, a senior mid/forward, and Raquel Jiminez, a sophomore forward/mid. Both are in double digits for goals scored.

Jiminez scored twice in the first meeting with Columbia Falls this year.

“Our defense has been stellar,” Trenerry said.

“We’ve only had 10 goals scored on us in 10 games.

“Alyson Gimbel has had a great season (in goal), especially for her first year,” he added.

The game will be broadcast on the following website — www.nfhsnetwork.com/associations/mhsa.