Twenty-six Montana High School Association soccer matches, boys and girls, will be played by area teams over a three-day period this Labor Day Weekend.

The action began Thursday with a pair of Class A clashes.

Play resumes today and Saturday with home matches in Kalispell, Columbia Falls and Polson.

Here is a season preview of area teams in Class AA and A.

Bigfork

Girls

All-conference player Ally Pancost, a senior defender, returns for her fourth year as a starter.

Madison Gardner, a senior striker, and Ashton McAnally, a sophomore striker, are two more experienced players third-year coach Jens Sundem will be counting on this fall.

“We have a great group of incoming freshmen and some quality returning players as well,” he said.

“I’m excited about this year. I’m looking forward to the season, hoping it’s a little bit better than last year.”

Sundem said the Valkyries offense will again be balanced.

“We had a couple who put the ball in the back of the net for us,” he said a year ago. “We didn’t have one super scorer by any means.”

Senior Ellie Berreth, a tennis and basketball standout, will try her hand at soccer.

“She’s a senior stepping in goal for us,” Sundem said.

“First year playing.

“She was looking for a challenge this fall,” he continued.

“First year playing as a senior is pretty cool. She’s looking good ... a little rough around the edges, but learning the game as we go through our 12 practices before the first game. Se has good hands, has a lot of potential to be a pretty good goalie for us this year.”

Sundem expects Pancost and Nelson to have super seasons.

“One of our center defenders,” he said of Pancost.

“I’m hoping she’ll be bringing good organization to our back line.

“Jordan Nelson, a junior midfielder, is our co-captain with Ally. I’m looking for her to be our play-maker and work the middle of the field.”

Boys

After canceling last season because of a low turnout, coach Joe Feise admits he didn’t know what to expect for the fall of 2017.

“This year I thought the same thing (would happen),” he said.

“I hadn’t heard anything all summer. I put the word out, but only a couple guys where showing up for that. I thought here we go again.”

But at the first team soccer meeting before fall drills, “12 guys showed up,” he said.

“It was disappointing,” he said of canceling last season.

“I felt bad about that, but I can’t force kids to come out and play. I was happy some of those guys came back out this year and brought along some other guys.”

Alex Buenz, a senior central midfielder, Kyle Cumming, a senior central defender, Grant Gibson, a junior central defender, and Kalvin Eaton, a junior midfielder, all played two years ago and will have to carry the load early for a very inexperience team.

Three athletes participated in youth soccer, but this will be their first action on the pitch in five to six years.

The team will add two more players next month who are moving in from Wyoming.

“Everyone is glad soccer is back,” Feise said.

Columbia Falls

Boys/Girls

O’Brien Byrd’s passion for soccer will not only have him coaching the boys, but the girls as well this fall.

Byrd, who is in his third season with the boys, replaces longtime successful coach Greg Trenerry, who retired last year, as the girls coach.

“Oh my gosh, it’s going to be amazing,” he said of his pulling double-duty as head coach for both programs.

“I have assistant varsity coaches who share the program with me. I’m lucky to have the quality coaching staff I do.”

The boys return four all-conference players in Auguste Emond, a junior center-mid, Jakob Grein, a senior striker, Chance Adams and Alex Garate.

Tristan Grein, Skylar Chute and John Gilk all notched valuable varsity action a year ago.

“We lost 11 kids, only six starters,” Byrd said.

“That was a quality chunk of leadership, chunk of experience.”

The Wildcats finished last season with a 10-2-1 mark and lost 5-3 in the semifinals to Belgrade.

In Byrd’s first season, he turned the struggling program around quickly with a 5-7 mark.

“We’re going to play a different brand of soccer (this year),” he said.

“Over half the team will be first time varsity starters. We’re young, but talented without a doubt. We will have to be a physical team and defensively sound to hang in there with the best teams of the state and we will.”

The Wildcats return their second and leading scorers from a year ago in Jakob Grein, a senior striker, and Emond.

The team will break in a new keeper — Story Stemborski, a sophomore — but Byrd is high on the youngster.

“Six-foot-3, 200 pounds,” he said.

“Really a big kid with lots of potential. He has great feet ... he’s a center on the basketball ... and awesome eye hand co-ordination. He really covers the goal well.

“We have the same goal as last year, get us to the state championship game,” Byrd said.

“But we will do it with a different brand of soccer. Last year it was power and speed. This year it’s about togetherness in the attack and defending and possession — keeping the ball.”

Byrd said the girls will be like last year’s boys squad.

“Extremely powerful,” he said. “They have been lifting weights, working out all summer long. They have lightning speed on top.”

Hannah Gedlaman, a senior, forward/striker, heads a talented girls crew. She was an all-state performer a year ago.

Other varsity players back are keeper Madeline Jarvis, Madison Casazza, Annika Dupree, Macey Sandefer, Kailey Schrader, Hannah Callender, Kaylee Ashe, Lexi Purcell, Kyla Johnson, Josie Windauer, Flora Jarvis, Joyce Hatfield, Katy Garate, Graceanne Sevesind and Anna Pickard.

Ashe and Johnson both collected all-conference honors in 2016.

Lakiya Hill, a freshman striker, is expected to make a big impression.

“A rich tradition making the playoffs,” Byrd said of the girls

“No state trophy since 2007. The girls are hungry.

“We’re so deep, 16 players deep,” he said of his roster. “All five players on the bench could start on any given day. It’s a challenge.”

Whitefish

Girls

The Whitefish girls opened the season with a 6-1 conference triumph at Bigfork on Tuesday.

Anna Cook led the scoring parade with three goals.

Roland Benedict, in his third year as head coach, returns no all-state players but welcomes back first-team all-conference performer Pixie Moore, a senior midfielder, and second-team all-conference players Cook, a sophomore midfielder, Lexi Carbo, a senior midfielder, and Audrey Hyatt, a senior midfielder.

Other starters returning are Kellie Brown, a senior forward, Grace Benkelman, a sophomore forward, Grace Scrafford, a senior defender, and Abby Lowry, a junior defender.

“We lost five starters, including our top four scorers,” Benedict said.

He said the big issue with this team will be playing in the system and being disciplined.

“Because of seniors we lost, we have girls playing in new positions and new roles,” he said.

“Our team has always worked on knowing all positions so any player can play anywhere. We still will be very tough.”

Whitefish lost in the playoff quarterfinals in extra time last year. The Bulldogs reached the semifinals in Benedict’s first season.

“Over the past couple years, we haven’t had that gritty fight, especially in training when girls are competing with a lot more tenacity than normal. This year it’s brought that out. There is a character to our team, a no quit attitude.”

Whitefish was the league champs last year, losing only to Columbia Falls en route to an 11-4 record. The year before, WHS finished third in league play and was 9-4-1.

Boys

John Lacey, in his third season, has one all-state player back in Avery Hirsch, a senior midfielder. This will be Hirsch’s fourth year as a starter.

“Plays defensive midfield for us, very aggressive, but a clean ball winner,” Lacey said of his senior standout.

Returning second-team all-conference players are Sam Menicke, a sophomore, midfielder, and Xander Burger, a senior midfielder.

The Bulldogs have eight players back who have started varsity games.

“Young, but experienced,” Lacey said. “They play a lot of soccer, a strong group technically.”

The team will have a new keeper in Colter Upton, a sophomore.

“We are expecting big things out of Colter,” Lacey said.

“He’s a very athletic player. Again, he’s a very experience goalie even if it’s not at the high school level. He’s truly an exceptional athlete.”

The team’s top two scorers return in Casey Snyder and Hirsch.

“I think we’ve been young the last two years,” Lacey said.

“Our team has gotten a lot of experience playing. This team has yet to deal with success, but this year I feel we’re going into games knowing we have and should do well. We have not had a winning season in three years.

“I’m really excited,” he said of the fall campaign.

“It’s a strong group. They are ready for the expectations. I’m looking for a longer season.”

Whitefish opened play on Tuesday blasting Bigfork 10-1 at Bigfork. Menicke, Snyder and Burger had two goals each. Noah Romanguolo had two assists and one goal.

Libby

Girls

The Loggers came up short in their opening season loss to Stevensville last weekend, but the team still managed to accomplish something special.

“They scored only one goal last year,” first-year coach Eric Kapan said.

“We have that achievement accomplished in one game.”

Kapan’s daughter Isabelle netted the goal in the second half of the 4-1 setback to the Yellowjackets.

“The girls lost so many games last year,” Kapan said.

“The pieces are just starting to fall in place for them. They just have to execute and put the finishing touches on it. We had so many missed opportunities for goals (versus Stevensville).”

The team returns six starters — Missy VanDeburg, a senior defensive back, Isabelle Martineau, Abbie Kreiten, Jillian Hawthorne, a senior right forward, Ashlyn Hoff, a senior forward, and Shannon Reny, a senior keeper.

Reny, however, will be sidelined for the season as she recovers from a knee injury suffered during the basketball season.

Battling for keeper duties are junior Isabella Hollingsworth and freshman Bethany Thomas.

Thomas was in goal for the entire game with Stevensville.

“She did a great job,” Kapan said.

Kapan is excited about the future of the program with 10 freshman on the roster.

“We had a lot of freshman play (in the opener),” he said. “I’m looking for them to start jelling by the third, fourth game. Then we will have a better picture.”

He said the emphasis during preseason drills was “teaching fundamentals. We were tired (during the opener).”

He said the conditioning will come.

“The seniors said it was their best game ever,” Kapan said of the Stevensville match.

Boys

Mark Peterson, in his third season as head coach, has a talented group of returners, led by starters Ethan Hoff, a senior center-back, Tyler Lucas, a senior keeper, Austin Swartzenberger, a junior center-back, Logan LaBelle, a sophomore halfback, and Sebo Sanders, a sophomore striker.

Lucas, a three-year starter, was a center-back for the last three years. Also switching spots is Swartzenberger, who moves to center-back from the midfield.

Libby, who finished 4-6-1 a year ago, missed out on the playoffs after back-to-back trips. Gone is the team’s leading scorer — Cody Wood.

“We lost three-year all-state players,” Peterson said. “I had 10 seniors on Saturday and I started three players who never played a soccer game before. They did really well.”

His said this year’s team is pretty thin on numbers and experience.

“Just improve,” he said of what he’s looking forward to this season.

“A lot of players will get significant playing time. Just to have fun, a good time for all.”

He said Lucas, who is a team captain, had a strong outing in goal last Saturday in a 0-0 tie with Stevensville.

“He made nine saves on some really tough shots,” Kapan said.

Polson

Girls

One all-state player returns for first-year coach Jamie Whealon, who was an assistant with the PHS boys last year, in Ashlee Howell, a junior striker.

Marina Mayorga, a senior midfielder, is also back. She garnered all-conference mention last fall.

Plus, Whealon has four more starters from 2016 on the roster with Amelia Pittsley, a senior defender, Sarah Newell, a senior defender, Aisha Clarke, a sophomore midfielder, and Michelle Terry, a senior striker.

“(Polson) graduated 10 seniors” Whealon said. “That was the basically the girls on last year’s squad. It’s a mixed bag right now.”

Freshman Megan Rost will handle the keeper duties.

“She looks good,” Whealon said of Rost. “She just needs a little confidence boost is all and she will be fine. We have a lot freshmen. They will have to get used to the speed of the game. They all have talent in one way or another. We’re just looking to put it together for them.”

Boys

Third-year coach Adam Fansher has high expectations for a team that finished second in the conference last year and won it the year before.

“We just take it one game at a time,” he said.

“I have a group of kids who have played in a lot of varsity games now and finished at the top of the conference since they were freshman. They know what it takes to play with the top teams in the state. We bring back a lot of talent.”

Two all-state players are back in Linde Lambson, a senior forward, and Bridger Wenzel, a junior midfielder.

Also returning are all-conference players Russell Smith, a senior goal keeper, and Alex Encizo, a senior midfielder, and starters Mack Moderie, a junior midfielder, Connor Lenier, a junior defender, and Michael Burgeron, a senior forward.

“We’re really balanced this year,” Fansher said. “We have some guys (back) who could have helped us last year when they were fighting injuries.

“I’m excited for the all-state guys coming back. Two players who will have breakout years are Connor Lenier and Mack Moderie. Those two were banged up last year.”

Another player to watch for is Xavier Docksley. Fansher says Lenier and Docksley “are strong, physical kids.”