Boys soccer regains mojo with victory
<p>Whitefish forward Jared Johnson puts in a goal last week in a conference match against Polson.</p>
The Whitefish boys soccer team stormed back into the win column on Tuesday with an impressive 6-1 conference victory over a physical Polson team.
Less than a week after their first loss in 2 1/2 years, the Bulldogs regrouped, found their fighting spirit and wasted no time lighting up the home scoreboard at Smith Fields for their homecoming game.
“It was a great way to move past a loss and carry on to the rest of the season,” Whitefish coach O’Brien Byrd said.
Forward Jared Johnson tallied on a breakaway in the 12th minute to give Whitefish an early edge. Johnson beat his defender and buried a shot past Polson’s charging keeper.
Senior defensive captain Jon Dittman hit the net in the 19th minute on a direct kick past Polson’s defensive wall to put the Dogs up 2-0.
Dittman had the play of the match in the 35th minute when he out-jumped a defender and put in a header off a corner kick.
“We’ve been pushing Dittman up on set pieces and he’s established some great dominance in the air,” Byrd said. “To have a skill set like that in the tool bag is nice.”
Dittman also assisted Johnson on his 16th and 17th goals in the second half. Danny Weaver found the net in the 75th minute to cap the scoring.
On Thursday, Whitefish battled to a 2-2 tie with Libby to wrap up the No. 1 seed in the conference.
Whitefish coach O’Brien Byrd called it the best game Whitefish played all year.
“It was tremendous,” he said. “It was our most complete game. The guys were 100 percent committed.”
Whitefish dominated possession for 90 percent of the match, but gave up two late goals in the second half.
“We got a little unlucky and that can happen sometimes,” Byrd said.
“It’s the most excited I’ve ever been about a game we tied. We had two or three guys that played the best games of their careers.”
Senior captain Nathan Boone sat out both games with a shoulder injury he sustained in a match against Stevensville. He’s unsure when he will return to action. Mozi Gerber and Hunter Lamoureux are also injured going into the final week of the regular season.
Whitefish 3 3 — 6
Polson 0 1 — 1
W – Jared Johnson (assist Jon Dittman), 12:00
W – Dittman, 19:00
W – Dittman (Shanoah Montano), 35:00
W – Johnson (Dittman), 51:00
W – Johnson (Dittman), 57:00
P – Spencer Raymond, 67:00
W – Danny Weaver (Johnson), 74:00
Shots on goal – Polson 1, Whitefish 13. Corner kicks – Polson 0, Whitefish 5. Saves – Polson 7 (Trevor Basler, Rhett Burland), Whitefish 1 (Sam Benkelman). Total fouls – Polson 15, Whitefish 11. Yellow cards – Polson 2, Whitefish 2.
Whitefish 2 0 — 2
Libby 0 2 — 2
WHITEFISH — Jon Dittman (Tommy Murphy), 2:00; Libby own goal, 36:00
LIBBY — Colin Maloney (Johnny Davidson), 76:00; Giovanni Cano (Davidson), 80:00
Shots on goal — Libby 3, Whitefish 11. Saves — Libby 9 (Jacob Wood), Whitefish 2 (Sam Benkleman). Corner kicks — Libby 1, Whitefish 3. Fouls — Libby 6, Whitefish 9. Cards — none.