Bengals fall in heartbreaking fashion in district championship

Oct. 11—The Lake City Timberwolves of Coeur d'Alene claimed the Idaho Class 5A Inland Empire League district championship, 3-2, and won a state tournament berth off an own goal by the Lewiston Bengals in the 90th minute of a sudden-death overtime soccer match Tuesday at Walker Field.

"Both teams fought real hard," Lewiston coach Scott Wimer said. "Both knew what was on the line here — getting the playoff berth straight into State. This is a key element that a team wants to win. After a great season, it's unfortunate that it didn't go our way but our girls fought hard and Lake City is a great team."

Strong start

Before Lake City (8-5, 5-2) took advantage of Lewiston's miscue at the end of the match, the home team took advantage of some mistakes from the visitors.

The Bengals in the first half drove the ball several times into the Timberwolves' side of the pitch. With both teams in the penalty box and shoving for position, Brynn Wimer got the ball through the net on a header to put Lewiston (11-4-3, 4-2-1) up 1-0 in the 10th minute.

Lake City wasted no time responding and Chloe Burkholder managed to sneak a shot under the outstretched side of Lewiston goalkeeper Allison Olson to even up the score at 1-all in the 13th.

In a goal that played out similarly to the first with both sides scrambling for position in the penalty box, Jessa Hartwig scored after Brynn Wimer passed it to her off a Timberwolves' deflection to put the Bengals up 2-1 in the 27th minute.

The rest of the half played out without another goal and Lewiston went into halftime with momentum and up by one goal.

Then Lake City adjusted.

Defense wins (district) championships

The Timberwolves ramped up their defensive efforts in the second half and controlled the time of possession for most of the 40-minute period. The Bengals scrambled to find an opportunity to score and put the match out of reach for the visitors. And they nearly got it.

Eva Steele passed the ball past her defender to a sprinting Lathen for a potential one-on-one opportunity with Lake City goalkeeper Acaja-Lyn Scott in the 51st minute. The pass put the ball too far in front of Lathen and the home team missed a chance to go up two goals.

The Timberwolves continued to apply their defensive pressure and maintained possession until, three minutes later, Gabbie Henkle found the net on an assist from Taylor Miller to tie the match up 2-2.

Both teams had penalty kick opportunities in the final 26 minutes of regulation to try and take the lead, but none of the attempts were successful and the match went to sudden-death overtime.

"We were a little more patient with the ball on the back line," Lake City coach Matt Ruchti said. "We just started to play the ball a little more direct instead of short passes, which is what we actually like to do. On this field, the spaces behind the backlines, it's a short field. So, you have to skip the midfield and go straight to the frontline to cause more goal-scoring opportunities. I thought in the second half our backline and our centers did a really great job keeping the momentum going forward."

Heartbreaking finish

Before the 10-minute overtime period started, the Lewiston students in attendance tried to hype up the players with renditions of Keyshia Cole's "Love" and Sean Kingston's "Beautiful Girls." Maybe it's a stretch to say the dulcet tones of the Bengal faithful helped the home team out, but something worked.

Lewiston played more aggressively in overtime and disrupted Lake City's residency of the ball with several attacking opportunities. The defense played with equal intensity. Olson saved a potential Timberwolves score in the 84th minute with a slide kick and, a minute later, the defense forced Lake City's Emily Medina to bounce a shot off the crossbar.

Then, five minutes later, in the final minute of overtime, disaster struck the Bengals.

Medina had a penalty kick opportunity facing nearly straight-on to the goal. After she kicked the ball, a Bengals player attempted to block the shot.

The ball ricocheted off her leg into the net to give the Timberwolves a 3-2 overtime win, a berth to state and the district championship trophy.

"If we were gonna lose, I'd rather it be this way instead of a shut-out or something like that," Wimer said. "We still have our play-in game, which is hosted here, so hopefully we can regroup and still make our playoff berth."

Final stats

Brynn Wimer finished with two points, an assist and a goal ... Hartwig also had a goal for Lewiston ... Olson had 14 saves off 18 Lake City shots.

Up next

The Bengals' last chance to punch a ticket to the Idaho Class 5A state championship tournament will be against either Mountain View, Owyhee, Centennial or Eagle at 1 p.m. Saturday at Walker Field in Lewiston.

Lake City 1 1 1—3

Lewiston 2 0 0—2

Lewiston — Brynn Wimer, 10th

Lake City — Chloe Burkholder (Riley Brazle), 13th

Lewiston — Jessa Hartwig (Wimer), 27th

Lake City — Gabbie Henkle (Taylor Miller), 54th

Lake City — Lewiston own goal, 90th

Shots — Lake City 18; Lewiston 8. Saves — Lake City: Acaja-Lyn Scott 3; Lewiston: Allison Olson 14.

Kowatsch can be contacted at 208-848-2268, tkowatsch@lmtribune.com or on Twitter @Teren_Kowatsch.