The pairings have been set and the Hamilton girls and the Corvallis boys have secured the No. 1 seed in the south heading into the Class A playoffs. Hamilton will play Polson at noon on Saturday at Hamilton High School. Corvallis will host Polson in Corvallis. That game will begin at 1pm in Corvallis. (Regular season passes are not accepted at playoff games.)
The Hamilton girls finished the season with 10 wins, one loss and one tie. They are the conference champions. Their only loss was early in the season against Belgrade in a 7-0 shut out. Since then they have come together playing tough defense and finding the open shots. Corvallis played them to a 2-2 tie two weeks ago. Polson comes into the playoff game as the No. 2 seed in the North with a record of 9-2-1 overall and 6-1-1 in conference play.
Reilly Rostad is the leading scorer for the Broncs, with 12 goals scored this year. She also has seven assists in the season. Rostad is a senior. Olivia Zepeda is the second leading scorer for the Broncs, with 11 goals scored this season. The sophomore also has had eight assists this year. Elise Striebel, the only other senior on the team, is also in the top 20 in the state in scoring. She has scored seven goals this year and has five assists.
The Corvallis girls played Tuesday night in a play in game against Loyola. No results were available at press time. Corvallis finished the regular season with an overall record of seven wins, four losses and one tie, and a conference record of six wins, one loss, and one tie. Corinne Sanderson of Corvallis is the top scorer in the state this year. The senior has scored 26 goals this year and 11 assists. Hailey Mason, another senior, is also in the top 20 in the state in scoring. She has booted 17 goals this year and has 10 assists.
The Corvallis boys are the two-time defending state champions. The juggernaut has not even slowed down despite having a new coach. Kevin Hagan, who coached the Stevensville girls for a few years, stepped into Gregg Shifflet’s shoes but didn’t really change much. The Blue Devils go into the playoffs with a record of 14-0. En route to this record, they have scored 46 goals while holding opponents to only eight.
The duo of Emmett Semple and Cayden Ayers has powered the Blue Devils all season. These two seniors have combined for 38 goals this year with Semple scoring 24 goals. Ayers leads the team with 24 assists and Semple has seven. Roberto Rizzo is also in the top 20 in scoring. But it isn’t just these three players that make the Blue Devils what they are. They play tough defense that is tough to penetrate. They have an experienced keeper in Justin Catanach, and a tough backfield that very rarely lets a ball get by them.
Hamilton has seven seniors on the team. Aldo Rodriguez is the leading scorer for the Broncs rely more on defense and average only two goals a game. The Broncs played Loyola Tuesday night. Results were not in at press time.
The Corvallis boys topped Stevensville, 7-0. Ayers scored the first goal of the game at five minutes. He then found Brennan Williams six minutes later for an assist. Ayers had four more assists in the game. He found Semple at 45 minutes, Ladd Grenfell at 49 minutes, Grenfell again at 58 minutes and Nathan Gardner at 73 minutes. Justin Catanach scored the final Blue Devil goal at 78 minutes off a Nick Spinetta assists. Corvallis took 19 shots on goal and Stevensville took three. Tristan Pearson had 12 saves for Stevensville. Corvallis had three saves, two by Catanach and one by Ayers.
Corvallis defeated Loyola, 6-1, in their final regular season game. Although Loyola scored first, it was all Corvallis the rest of the match. Alec Sangster scored at 15 minutes on an assist from Semple. Ayer scored at 19 minutes on an assist from Ladd Grenfell. Semple scored at 27 minutes and Ives Fershee scored on a penalty kick at 33 minutes. In the second half, Avery Walden scored and then Ayers finished the scoring on an assist from Ryan Wiggins at 56 minutes. Corvallis took 16 shots on goal and had three saves, two by Catanach and one from Spinetta. Loyola took four shots on goal and had seven saves.
The Hamilton boys defeated Frenchtown, 2-0. The first goal didn’t come until the 65th minute of the defensive battle when Will Lowden scored an unassisted goad. Nick Turner also had an unassisted goal at 71 minutes. Hamilton took six shots on goal and had one save. Frenchtown took one shot on goal and had four saves.
Hamilton took a 3-0 win over Stevensville on Saturday. Adrian Garcia scored at 52 minutes. He was followed by Aldo Rodriguez at 68 minutes and Drew Brackman at 78 minutes. Stevensville had 13 shots on goal while Hamilton took 16. Tristan Pearson had two saves for Stevensville.
The Hamilton girls defeated Frenchtown, 4-3 last Thursday. Zepeda scored the first Bronc goal right at the end of the first half. Rostad scored at 51 minutes on an unassisted goal. Rylee Wiediger scored at 52 minutes and Striebel scored at 62 minutes. Hamilton took 24 shots on goal while Frenchtown only had seven shots. Maddy Martin had three saves for Hamilton.
Hamilton blanked Stevensville, 7-0, in the final regular season game. Tessa DellaSilva found Ashlee Searle open at two minutes for the first goal of the game. She found Meggie Lewis open just a minute later for another goal. Zepeda sent the ball to Rylee Wiediger for a goal at 20 minutes. It was Zepeda again making the assist at 30 minutes when she found Searle open. Zepeda scored at 50 minutes off a Rostad assist. Lewis took a pass from Striebel to the net at 52 minutes. The final goal of the game was a Rostad assist to Striebel at 60 minutes. Hamilton took 20 shots while Stevensville had four. Kody Moran had two saves for Hamilton and Sami Merwin had six saves for the Yellowjackets.
Corvallis defeated Stevensville 11-0. The Blue Devils took 24 shots on goal. Stevensville took one. Sanderson started the scoring for Corvallis with an unassisted goal at one minute. She also had a goal at 20 minutes when Ceara Chavez found her open and again at 51 minutes from an assist from Maria Hickey and then another unassisted goal at 58 minutes. Chavez scored at nine minutes on an assist from Sanderson. Mason took a pass from Sydnee McClendon at 19 minutes for another goal and then took an assist at 20 minutes from Sanderson for the goal. Meghan Jessop scored off a McClendon assist at 22 minutes and then Mason scored an unassisted goal at 35 minutes. Maria Hickey hit the net on a penalty kick at 45 minutes. Penny Jessop scored the final Blue Devil goal off a Mason assist.