WHITEFISH — The Whitefish Bulldogs poured in three goals in the second half to top the Columbia Falls Wildcats 3-1 at Smith Fields on Thursday in Northwest A soccer.

“This is a quality opponent,” Whitefish coach John Lacey said. “They force us to play our best soccer… They definitely had chances, Kai Golan is so dangerous.”

Preston McPherson started the scoring in the second half, and Kyler Jonson added one soon after. River Wolford cut the lead to 2-1 in the 60th, but Sam Dow responded with Whitefish’s third goal.

“I'm really excited that they're gonna get a couple more games on this field for us, hopefully,” Lacey said of Whitefish’s seniors. “We gotta win the first one, but we're hoping that we can put together another playoff run and be here for a while. I'd love to have a third game against these guys.”

With the win, Whitefish locked up the conference title, an unbeaten 10-0-0 record and has one regular season game left, in Polson on Saturday.

Columbia Falls’ next game will be in the playoffs. The Wildcats are 10-1-1 overall and 6-1-0 in league.

“They did what they needed to do, they got it done,” Wildcats coach O’Brien Byrd said. “They were the better team today. It was a very stark reality check to remember just how young we are. This is a big occasion and sometimes you rely on your experience to get through those rough patches of nervousness and we just don't have a ton of that experience part. I'm proud of the guys. They never gave up. I'm not upset at them. I'm disappointed we didn't get the win, but these guys gave a hundred percent.”

Columbia Falls 0 1 — 1

Whitefish 0 3 — 3

WF — Preston McPherson (Ryder Elliott) 42:00

WF — Kyler Jonson 45:00

CF — River Wolford (Traic Fainter) 60:00

WF — Sam Dow (Elliott) 72:00

Shots — CF 2, WF 7. Goalie saves — CF 4 (Rafe Rusche), EF 1 (Ethan Bourque). Corner kicks — CF 0, WF 11. Fouls — CF 7, WF 10.