Sandpoint 1, Moscow 1

MOSCOW — To say the Sandpoint High girls soccer team has been resilient this year — and over the last two years for that matter — would be an understatement.

After two overtime periods, junior goalkeeper Izzy Stark made a tremendous save, senior Ava Glahe fired in the game-winning goal, and the No. 2 Lady Bulldogs claimed their fourth straight 5A District 1-2 Championship with a 4-2 penalty shootout defeat of the No. 1 Lady Bears Wednesday afternoon at the Moscow Community Playfields.

After trailing 1-0 in the first half due to a Moscow corner kick goal, sophomore Alyssa Porter sent a through ball from midfield to senior Hope Barnes, who continued her scoring spree by burying one into the back of the net from 25 yards out to force the 1-1 tie. Despite the early scores by both teams, neither would find nylon again in the second half or in both 10-minute overtime periods — overtime periods where Stark made a point-blank save and senior Elia Howard shut down Moscow's best goal-scorer to keep Sandpoint alive and onto the penalty shootout.

"Moscow came out on fire," Sandpoint High head coach Alan Brinkmeier said. "They made us change formations to match their intensity, especially on the outside. Hats off to their coach and their team for that gameplan."

In the shootout, seniors Cecilia Dignan and Mackenzie Mitchell both scored as the Bears matched for a 2-2 split. During the third round of shots, junior Bayah Ratigan scored for the Lady Bulldogs while Moscow's shot went over the crossbar as Sandpoint took a 3-2 lead. With the game now in the hands of Stark, she dove to bottom left-hand corner of the net and then scrambled to get rid of the deflected shot to complete the save before the ball crossed the line.

"It was impressive," Brinkmeier said of Stark's save. "Izzy going against our five best shooters during practice helped her to be prepared. She is cool under pressure and came up big again when we needed her throughout this whole tournament. It was really something special to get to that low of a shot."

The save set up Glahe for possibly the biggest moment of her storied career thus far, and she sunk the fourth and final Sandpoint goal into the top right-hand corner of the net to cap off the victory.

"They were all just composed finishes," Brinkmeier said of Dignan, Mitchell, Ratigan and Glahe's penalty kicks. "They hit them high with pace. Moscow has two great goalkeepers and they didn't really have chances."

Last season, three-seeded Sandpoint defeated one-seeded Lewiston by a score of 3-0 to capture the district title after losing to the Lady Bengals twice during the regular season. Heading into the championship game this season, the Lady Bulldogs were in a similar situation coming off a 0-0 tie and a 3-0 loss to the Lady Bears. Brinkmeier said it's proof that his team is able to show up in the moments where it matters most.

"It really came down to their grit," Brinkmeier said of his team, who told him the conditioning he put them through this season paid off in the end. "I just can't say enough about their determination ... from where we started this season, any team could have just given up, but they took every formation change that I gave them, any position that I gave them, and they did it with grace and grit."

Sandpoint (6-8-1) will carry a four-game winning streak into the 5A State Championship, which is set to be held Thursday, Oct. 23, through Saturday, Oct. 25, at Middleton High. The Lady Bulldogs' seed number and first-round opponent will be announced early next week. 

Moscow (10-3-3) will face off against the the District 3 runner-up in a state play-in game Saturday at McCall-Donnelly High.