Why not, Lake City?
<p>Maddison Ward of Lake City beats Post Falls' Olivia Ellison for possession of the ball in the first half.</p>
<p>The Lake City girls soccer squad cheers after a teammate scored a goal Saturday during a shoot following a double overtime situation against Post Falls in the girls 5A state soccer championship in Coeur d'Alene.</p>
<p>The Lake City High School girls soccer team celebrates with Meaghan Bare, second from left, after scoring the game winning goal against Post Falls to win the state 5A girls soccer championship Saturday in Coeur d'Alene.</p>
COEUR d’ALENE — Sophomore forward Meaghan Bare scored as the fifth kicker in a penalty kick shootout in a semifinal match on Friday to put the Lake City Timberwolves into their first state 5A title match in 13 years.
As the deciding kicker again on Saturday, Bare and the rest of her teammates were golden.
After a scoreless tie in regulation and two overtimes, Bare delivered the game-winner as Lake City defeated Inland Empire League rival Post Falls 5-4 on penalty kicks to win its first state 5A girls soccer tournament championship in school history at Coeur d’Alene High.
“I was super nervous again,” Bare said. “But I knew my team had been there for me in all our games. I just knew I needed to put it in the back of the net.”
Lake City beat Centennial in double overtime last Saturday at Middleton High in a play-in match to advance to state, then beat Highland of Pocatello in a quarterfinal on Thursday in another double-OT match.
“Our team is really exhausted right now,” Bare said. “But I think it was adrenaline that pushed us through the last few days. Nobody gave up — and that’s what’s amazing.”
At 3-5-3 on Sept. 20, Lake City went on to win seven of its last nine games, with one tie and a loss — at Post Falls in the regional title game on Oct. 9.
“It’s been so amazing,” Bare said. “We’ve worked so hard over the last three weeks. I’m thankful for all of them and happy for all of them. I’m so excited right now and can’t wait for next year.”
“We’ve been talking about this and had a message — why not us? Why not now?” 10th-year Lake City coach Matt Ruchti said.
That time is now.
“We talked about how we didn’t know how good we could be,” Ruchti said. “So I showed them a clip of a cross country runner finishing a race on their hands and knees and I told them to just finish — finish what we started on Aug. 7 and then keep it going. I thought we could have played better throughout the season and we said ‘Why not us?’ — and just finish it off. Whatever that means, just finish it off.”
Lake City was runner-up in the 2000 tournament and joins Coeur d’Alene as the only 5A champions from the north since then. The Vikings won the championship in 2006. Prior to Saturday, Lake City’s best finish under Ruchti was third in 2003 — his first season as coach.
In the shootout, Lexi Smith scored first for Post Falls, followed by a goal by Sydney Quimby. Lake City goalkeeper Tiegan Horton saved the second shot and the Timberwolves took a 2-1 advantage on a score by Maddi Ward. Kelsie Hedge scored to even the score for Post Falls. Jennifer Snow gave Lake City a 3-2 edge before Erica Simpson’s shot was deflected by Horton, but rolled back into the net. Natalie Wheelock gave the Timberwolves a 4-3 advantage, then Michelle Waller tied it at 4 before Bare’s winning shot, inside the left post.
“Both teams played unbelievable,” second-year Post Falls coach Briggs Anderson said. “With Lake City, we knew it was going to be really hard because they know us really well. It boiled down to whatever team got the lucky draw. It’s tough to lose on PKs — that’s for sure.”
Post Falls has one senior on its roster — forward Katie King — and the Trojans appeared at state for the first time in program history.
“The biggest thing we went through is we went through the entire tournament and regionals without giving up a goal,” Anderson said. “To lose a state tournament without doing that is a difficult thing to handle. But we’re looking forward to next year and I think we’ve got a lot to prove and build on.”
Heading into penalty kicks for the second straight day, Horton knew exactly what she needed to do.
“Once I’d seen the two minutes were up, I just needed to calm myself down and get ready for the PKs,” Horton said. “This means so much. We’ve came so far since Aug. 7. We just started thinking this could be our last game and put our heart into it and once we qualified, we just kept going up. Ever since Aug. 7, we’ve been up and down, but we really pulled it together for this tournament because we really wanted this title.”
First half — none. Second half — none. First overtime — none. Second half — none.
Shots on goal — PF 7, LC 10.
Saves — PF, Sam Runkle 4; LC, Tiegan Horton 4.