The Knights continued their charge up the Western AA standings, posting a lopsided 10-1 victory over their crosstown rivals at the Big Sky fields behind a hat trick from Charlie Scheel as well as two goals and an assist from Jonah Brown.
In the girls' match later in the day, the Eagles gutted out a 1-0 victory that propelled them into first place in the conference after Missoula Sentinel upset Helena High.
The win moved the Knights to 7-2-2 in the league and overall and earned them a city championship. More importantly, the Knights maintained a share of second place entering the season's final week.
Sitting near the top of the conference standings with one match left in the regular season is more than Hellgate head coach Jay Anderson could have hoped for when the campaign began.
“Some Hellgate teams in the past haven't had the same confidence these guys have played with,” he said. “They've really progressed a lot and I don't think anyone would have picked us to do this well at the beginning of the season with as many seniors as we lost from last year. They've really picked up their game.”
The Knights dominated from the start, taking a 4-1 lead into halftime after Big Sky broke though against Hellgate senior goalkeeper Willow Skyrud on Nic Riley's successful penalty kick six minutes prior to intermission. First-half keeper Zack Bonner made four saves for the Eagles (0-10-0, 0-10-0).
Hellgate never let up, beginning with a goal by Lucas Matelich on a penalty kick five minutes into a second half that saw the Knights overwhelm the Big Sky goal with 27 shots. Ben Corwin found the back of the net three minutes later. Less than 60 seconds after, Brown netted his second goal with the help of some fancy footwork through the Big Sky defense.
Scheel, who scored off a feed from Matelich in the 25th minute, tallied twice more in the second half to complete his hat trick. Other scorers for the Knights were Sean Huber and Ian Hamilton.
Brown thinks the Knights aren't ready to relent with the postseason less than two weeks away.
“We just have to keep coming out and playing hard the way we always do,” Brown said afterward. “Right now, we're in the best position Hellgate's ever been in. So this is a great opportunity for us and that's motivation enough.”
Hellgate 4 6 - 10
Big Sky 1 0 - 1
H - Pablo Echeverri (Jonah Brown), 4:00
H - Brown (Ben Corwin), 8:00
H - Charlie Scheel (Lucas Matelich), 25:00
H - Sean Huber (Corwin), 28:00
B - Nic Riley (PK), 34:00
H - Matelich (PK) 45:00
H - Corwin (Sam Snyder), 48:00
H - Brown, 49:00
H - Scheel (Kyle Hammond), 54:00
H - Ian Hamilton (Colin Snodgrass), 63:00
H - Scheel (Brett Matthews), 75:00
Shots - Hellgate 40, Big Sky 4. Saves - Hellgate 2 (Willow Skyrud), Big Sky 15 (Zack Bonner 4, Lucas Wittkopp 11). Corner kicks - Hellgate 5, Big Sky 0. Total fouls - Hellgate 16, Big Sky 10. Yellow cards - Big Sky 1. Red cards - Big Sky 1 (Cody Riley).
Big Sky 1, Hellgate 0
Tiffiani Zanto scored off a feed from Leigh Torcoletti in the 10th minute and goalkeeper Shelby Quamme and the Big Sky defense took care of the rest as the Eagles carved out a big win.
“It was a very evenly played match,” said Big Sky head coach Matt Barrett after the Eagles improved to 6-2-2, 6-2-2. “Most of it was played in the middle of the field. The midfielders on both sides did a great job of battling.”
Big Sky, which won the teams' first meeting 2-1 on Sept. 19, snapped the Knights' four-match unbeaten streak. The Eagles outshot Hellgate 14-10 and received six saves from Quamme, who posted her second shutout of the season.
Anna Pickhardt and Molly Callahan-Baumstark combined to stop eight shots in goal for the Knights, who fell to 6-3-2, 6-3-2.
Barrett and his troops are excited to be in the top spot with one week left in the regular season.
“We have a pretty good squad and one of our goals was to finish the season in first,” Barrett said. “We thought we could do it, but we had to have the kids commit and sacrifice to get here and they did. Now we have to hold on to it and take care of business.”
Hellgate 0 0 - 0
Big Sky 1 0 - 1
B - Tiffiani Zanto (Leigh Torcoletti), 10:00
Shots on goal - Hellgate 9, Big Sky 14. Saves - Hellgate 8 (Anna Pickhardt, Molly Callahan-Baumstark), Big Sky 6 (Shelby Quamme). Corner kicks - Hellgate 2, Big Sky 1. Total fouls - Hellgate 5, Big Sky 7. Yellow cards - none. Red cards - none.
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Kay Brown wrote on Oct 13, 2008 9:19 AM: