SPORTS

CMR girls advance past Glacier in shootout

Scott Mansch
smansch@greatfallstribune.com

When you've waited an entire career for this, what's a few extra overtime periods?

"We talked about not wanting any bonus soccer, but we got some," Rob Zimmerman said. "Fortunately I finally came out on the right side of a shootout."

Zimmerman, the C.M. Russell High girls' coach who is retiring this season after a long career that is so far without a state championship, was elated and relieved Thursday after his Rustlers edged a gritty Kalispell Glacier squad in a first-round State AA soccer match at Siebel Soccer Park.

The Rustlers, 11-1-2 this season, advance to a semifinal clash against Billings West this afternoon at 1:30 as the tournament continues at Siebel.

Thursday's clash was scoreless through two 40-minute halves and a pair of 10-minute overtime sessions. The Rustlers finally prevailed in the shootout session, where each team had five shots from a designated spot in front of the goal.

Glacier was denied on two of its first four kicks. Russell found the net on three of its first four attempts, then won the match when Courteney Shevlin scored on No. 5.

"It was a tough game, well-played, and we had a couple of delays because of serious leg injuries," Zimmerman said of a match that took about three hours to complete. "We had some chances and had some trouble finishing. I thought we played well as a team, which is something we've done well and talked about all year.

"The girls hung together."

Both Briana Brown of CMR and Lindsay McDonald of Glacier were felled by leg injuries. Brown was hurt in the first half and McDonald, who was taken from the field by ambulance, was injured in the second half.

The latter incident required a delay of about 30 minutes midway through the second half.

Though CMR dominated at times in the first 40 minutes and then again in much of the second half, Glacier goalkeeper Amy Braig stood tall and did not permit a goal.

Conversely, CMR keeper Kylie Greenwall was just as solid. The junior also came up with a key save in the shootout.

"It was a huge save to keep us in it," Zimmerman said.

Greenwell said it was a tense time.

"I thought to myself 'I have to be confident. This is what we practice for all year long.' " she said. "I've probably taken 50 PKs in the last five days and I just had to do it for my team."

The Rustlers scored on three of their first four penalty kicks, as Tayla Vaira, Eme McLaughlin and Lindsay Martinez found the net.

Glacier's Ellie Stevens and Alysha Smith tallied, but two other shots were denied — including the save by Greenwell.

Shovlin then scored to clinch it.

"We've been working on PKs all week," she said. "I had to know where to shoot and stick with it."

The shootout is not a favorite moment for Zimmerman, who is stepping down after nearly 20 years as a soccer coach — both girls and girls — in the Electric City. His Russell girls have several top-four finishes in recent years but have never won the championship.

Shootouts have been primarily to blame.

"My second year as a girls' coach we lost an opening-round game to a shootout," he said. "We lost a semifinal two years ago in a shootout. I've been on the short end of them."

Then he smiled.

"I think I made the soccer gods mad at some point in time, so it was nice to finally come out on the right side of one."

Shovlin, a junior defender, admitted that as the game wore on and the favored Rustlers were unable to score, it got a little tense on the pitch.

"I knew we could pull it out," she said. "We just had to make sure we kept our energy up, and I was nervous that maybe we wouldn't. But we did. I was proud of our team in the end."

McLaughlin, the talented Russell star who led the state in scoring with 14 goals this season but was blanked by Braig and the Glacier defense, admitted that the day caused some anxiety.

"It was definitely really frustrating," she said. "But we stuck with it and didn't give up on anything. And (today) is a new day."

Zimmerman was asked if he's worried that his team might have expended too much energy with all the extra soccer on Thursday.

"I don't think so," he said. "We've trained well all year ... And if we need to get deep in the bench I'm comfident in everybody and we'll be OK."

McLaughlin agreed.

"We worked our butts off season. Had conditioning every week," she said. "I don't think it will be a problem for us."

Playing without Brown, though, will be difficult.

"We're all sisters here, a big family," McLaughlin said. "She's definitely going to be in our thoughts. We're going to still play like we can, and we're going to play for her."

The Rustlers have a victory and a tie in two matches with Billings West. Today the teams clash in the most important meeting of the season.

"We've had two great games with West and they're on a roll," Zimmerman said. "They finished the season strong and we expect they'll come out and give us a great game."

CMR 0, Kalispell Glacier 0

Glacier …0 0 – 0

CMR 0 0 – 0

(CMR won 4-2 in penalty kicks)

Penalty kicks—CMR 4 (Tayla Vaira, Eme McLaughlin, Lindsay Martinez, Courteney Shovlin), Kalispell Glacier 2 (Ellie Stevens, Alyssa Smith)