Lady Bulldogs pummel the Wildkats

By DAVID ERICKSON / Whitefish Pilot

The Lady Bulldogs turned in probably their best performance of the season when they needed it most Thursday night by dominating Columbia Falls for a convincing 7-1 win. It was the closest the Whitefish girls have looked to last year's state championship runner-up squad.

The game went scoreless for the first 19 minutes, as both teams looked a little disorganized, until Carly Lengstorf decided she wanted to get the attack started.

Lengstorf took advantage of a perfectly placed long feeder from Kelsey McCluskey, put a move on a defender, and rocketed one into the bucket.

That first goal seemed to give Whitefish the confidence they needed, and from there the Wildkats found themselves running into a buzz saw.

Lengstorf faked out Wildkat goalkeeper Niesha Thompson in the 30th minute for her second goal. She acted like she was going to cross the ball from five feet out, then turned and simply blasted the ball into the near corner.

In the 32nd minute, McCluskey fed another beautiful over-the-top pass right to the feet of senior midfielder Meagan Powell, who was already a step past the defender by the time the ball landed. Powell drilled the goal to give Whitefish a 3-0 lead going into halftime.

Lengstorf said her team is always pumped up to play their rivals.

"We were singing on the bus," she said. "The key thing that helped us was not being negative at all. We were making connections on our passes, and we were taking advantage of our shots."

In the second half, McCluskey, Powell, Becca Strellnauer and Meredith Reed each scored to put the game away at 7-0. The Lady Bulldogs outshot the Wildkats 22-9.

Columbia Falls head coach Greg Trenerry said he was forced to start six freshman.

"We had a lot of young players," he said. "We started all right, but we were just giving up too many balls. It didn't feel like a 7-1 game."

Whitefish head coach Lini Reading agreed that the game was a little tighter than the score indicated.

"Columbia Falls put pressure on us all over the field," she said. "We made some mistakes, but stayed positive."

Reading said her team has shown tendencies to lose a little bit of composure when they make early mistakes, but that was not the case in this game.

"We hadn't played a full game of soccer yet," she admitted. "We had been struggling to play as a team. We supported each other all over the field today. Our speed of play was much, much better."

On Tuesday, the Lady Bulldogs will get a chance to redeem what Reading termed "a lackluster effort" against the Bigfork Valkyries.

"We're looking to play a completely different game than we played in Bigfork," she said. "And I think all the girls would tell you the same thing. We need to play better. It's going to be a fun game."

The Lady Bulldogs play under the lights at Whitefish High School stadium at 7 p.m. for the showcase homecoming match.

Whitefish 3 4 - 7

C-Falls 0 1 - 1

Whitefish - 19:00 Carly Lengstorf (Kelsey McCluskey); 30:00 Lengstorf (Natalie Gayner); 32:00 Meagan Powell (McCluskey); 60:00 McCluskey (Megan Apple); 65:00 Powell (Hannah Long); 75:00 Becca Strellnauer (Long); Reed (free kick).

WF C-Falls

Shots on goal 22 9

Goalie saves 2 (Callie Marsh) 14

2 (Madisen Cross)

Corner kicks 5 2

Fouls 5 5