Kats continue to roll

The Columbia Falls girls soccer team dominated the pitch last week, defeating both Browning and Bigfork.  The Cats have won six in a row to start the season.

Columbia Falls overpowered the Browning Lady Indians 10-0 last Tuesday.  Riley Byrd scored her first hat of two tricks of the week and Onnikka Lawrence contributed three assists to lead the Kats.  Columbia Falls outshot the Lady Indians 20-0.

The Cats and Bigfork Valkyries were anticipated to engage in a closely contested match on Thursday night. 

Last year, these two teams had met in the state championship, but this initial encounter was anything but a close contest.  When the final buzzer sounded, Columbia Falls emerged victorious with a score of 9-2 after 2-1 lead at the half.

“It is always nerve wracking playing against your first conference opponents of the year, and there was some additional weight to the game because it was a rematch of last year’s state championship.  I think we saw some of the emotion and frustration come out in the first half and we just needed to regroup at halftime and start solving problems on the field,” coach Thomas Clark said. “The second half was a good representation of the team we can be and the style of soccer we want to play.”

Byrd would have another remarkable game, scoring her second hat trick of the week and providing three assists. Lawrence would also achieve a hat trick of her own during the contest.

“One thing that sets us apart is that we have an elite midfield.  They don’t always get on the stat sheet as much as they deserve but having Byrd, Tatiana Raymond, and Evie Dorr in the middle of the pitch really gives us an advantage every single time step on the field,” Clark said.

Bigfork was overwhelmed by the Kats’ 20 shots on goal, while they only managed five.  Columbia Falls did fall short in the battle for the leader in fouls, with only three compared to the Valkyries’ five.

The Cats will be on the road this week, traveling to Libby to face the Loggers on Thursday. They will then face off against their rivals, the Whitefish Lady Bulldogs, on Saturday at 11 a.m. This game is expected to be a fierce battle, as both teams are currently undefeated in conference play and are vying for the top spot in the North conference.

“Every year it is a battle to go up against Whitefish and it is especially tough to go play them on the road.  One real benefit we have this year is that we already faced a number of good teams.  We’ve played against five playoff teams from last year, including the state runner up and both No. 1 seeds from the other conferences.  

“We haven’t always had that game experience this early in the season in other years ... Whitefish has a very technical group of players and we will have to lean on our leaders to go out and get a result,” Thomas said.

The girls also had a nonconference game against Sandpoint, Idaho on Tuesday after presstime.