Valkyries soccer starts season with two landslide victories

The Bigfork girls soccer season is off to a stellar start. 

With two non-conference games and two blow-out wins under their belts this is a different team.

In their first game alone the Valkyries racked up more goals than they did all of last season, crushing Stevensville last Tuesday 6-1 in their home opener.

Their season goals now total 14 after they travelled to Frenchtown and locked down an 8-2 win on Saturday.

“We’re having an excellent start to the season,” head coach Mike Marchetti said.

Part of the team’s turn around comes from a roster full of returning players and talented freshmen. Five freshmen started in the game against Frenchtown. And freshman Madison Gardner scored four of Bigfork’s eight goals.

“When you have that kind of talent you’ve got to play them,” Marchetti said.

But the success the Vals are seeing isn’t just from having a few good players.

“It was well balanced. The attack wasn’t one player being a star,” Marchetti said. Marchetti has been running a 5-2 lineup with three defenders, five midfielders and only two players strictly working offense. The combination, Marchetti said, keeps the field locked up and has contributed greatly to their wins.

He also continues to credit new assistant coach Jens Sundem. “He is really, really good with the girls,” Marchetti said. 

Against Frenchtown Georgia Cleasby scored the first goal 13 minutes in, assisted by Mattie McAnally.

McAnally followed up with a second goal off a corner kick 18 minutes in.

Frenchtown responded at 28 minutes with an unassisted goal from Chloe Emmons.

Gardner scored the next three goals at 43, 45, and 48 minutes, assisted by McAnally, Cleasby and Megan Pancoast.

Alauna Weilacher found the net again for Bigfork at 53 minutes assisted by McAnally.

Frenchtown’s Brooke Yarnell assisted by Jasmine Mitchell managed to sneak in a second goal at 53 minutes.

Gardner responded with her fourth goal, assisted by Cleasby at 71 minutes.

Cleasby assisted Ceciley Taylor at 77 minutes with Bigfork’s final goal.

Against Stevensville, Bigfork’s Haile Norred scored the first goal for about 11 minutes in. Weilacher scored the Valkyries’ second goal unassisted at the end of the half, and the Vals entered the second half with a 2-0 lead.

Cleasby scored five minutes into the second half, assisted by Gardner. That goal was followed by another goal from Pancoast, with an assist from Cleasby.

About 27 minutes into the second half Cleasby found the goal again assisted by McAnally.

Shortly after Stevensville finally scored a goal, Pancoast found the back of the net for Bigfork’s sixth point.

“That was amazing,” Marchetti said after the game. “This team is phenomenal. For us to do this on our first game is both amazing and hopefully a sign of a really good year.”

Stevensville girls were rated among the top teams for this year, Marchetti said.

He was pleased with how the Valkyries controlled the defense, attacks and seemed to have picked up everything from practice.

“I think the best part of this game was to watch the girls do what we asked them to,” he said.

Bigfork has two tough matches ahead of them on Friday at Saturday — traveling to Belgrade Friday and taking on Park County in Livingston on Saturday. Both games are non-conference.

“I think these will be a lot harder fought games based on the other teams’ records,” Marchetti said.