District 5 girls soccer roundup: Marsh Valley, Highland lead their conferences as playoffs near

EASTERN IDAHO — With girls’ soccer district tournaments right around the corner, two local teams lead their respective conferences.

The Highland Rams (8-5-1, 3-0-1) lead the 6A High Country Conference, with two conference games left to play. The Marsh Valley Eagles (12-1-2, 10-0) have won the 4A South East Idaho Conference.

Eagles soar over Snake River, Preston

Not only did Marsh Valley sweep its conference schedule, the Eagles did so in dominant fashion. They scored three or more goals in all 10 matches — nine or more in six — while never allowing more than one goal to a conference foe, winning the 10 matches by a combined 77 goals to three.

The Eagles only loss came at the hands of the Mountain Rivers Conference-leading Sugar-Salem Digegrs (11-1-1, 4-0) on Aug. 27. The two teams met again one week later, finishing in a 1-1 tie.

Marsh Valley’s closest conference challengers, Snake River (11-2-2, 7-2-1) and Preston (10-3-1, 6-3-1) met at Snake River High School Wednesday night, and finished in a 3-3 tie.

Of the challengers, Preston has played the Eagles closest, losing their two matchups by scores of 3-0 and 4-1. Snake River, though, owns a win over Preston — 3-1 on Sept. 14.

American Falls (3-12, 3-7), Malad (2-11-1, 2-8) and Aberdeen (1-11, 1-9) will all get their cracks at the top three teams when the district tournament starts.

Only one of the five teams will earn a spot in the state tournament — which will be played at Twin Falls High School. There will, however, be two at-large berth up for grabs, based on MaxPreps rankings.

Marsh Valley is currently ranked 4th in the state via MaxPreps. Snake River is 7th, and Preston is 10th.

Thunder in battle for second district bid

Behind senior Aryanna Gonzalez, who is tied with Skyline’s Isley Dixon and Macy Marlow for the state lead with 27 goals, the Pocatello Thunder (11-3-1, 9-3-1) are battling with the Grizz (9-2-2, 8-1-2) and Hillcrest Knights (12-0-1, 10-0-1) for the top spot in the 5A High Country Conference.

With two state berths up for grabs at the 5A District 5-6 tournament, along with five at-large bids, all three teams and Idaho Falls (8-5, 7-4) could potentially be state-bound. According to MexPreps, Hillcrest is currently the No. 2-ranked 5A team in the state; Skyline is 4th, Pocatello is 5th, and Idaho Falls is 9th.

Poky went 0-1-1 against Skyline this season, and 0-2 against Hillcrest.

Of course, Shelley (5-9, 5-8), Century (2-11, 2-9), Blackfoot (2-10, 2-10) and Bonneville (2-12, 2-10) will all have a say in the battle for those two district bids.

The Diamondbacks are well back in the conference standings with three conference games left on their schedule, but they do own wins over Blackfoot and Shelley and will look to make some noise at districts.

The 5A state tournament will be played in Sandpoint.

Rams cling to mountaintop with 2 games left

The Highland Rams (8-5-1, 3-0-1) lead the 6A High Country Conference, but their final two regular-season games will decide district tourney seeding.

Highland will travel to Rigby (3-9-2, 1-1-2) on Thursday, then host Madison (6-6-2, 2-1-1) in Saturday’s finale. The Rams own a 6-1 win over Madison, but their tie against Rigby means Thursday’s winner would likely be the conference champ.

The district owns 1.5 state berths, with three additional at-large bids. The half-berth winner — second place at the district tournament — will fall into the play-in round but will host the elimination game.

Highland is in position to have three different paths to the state tournament — as district champ, district runner-up and play-in host, or as an at-large bid (currently ranked No. 10 in the state). But the Rams would rather win their district and avoid the play-in round altogether.

The 6A state tournament will be played at Bonneville High School.