Marsh Valley earns bids in boys, girls state soccer tournaments

ARIMO — Marsh Valley High School hosted a pair of crucial soccer games Thursday night. On one field, the girls’ team faced Snake River for a second-place finish in the district tournament, which carried with it a state play-in bid.

It was a bullrush from the start, ending in a 5-0 Eagle victory.

Marsh Valley relentlessly attacked the Snake River goal and Panther goalie Allie Andersen. In the first 19 minutes of the game, the Eagles put 10 shots on goal. Anderson turned away nine of those shots away, while the 10th was mere inches high, banging off the crossbar and out of play.

The Eagles finally broke through in the 24th minute, when senior Adeley Marshall beat the Snake River keeper from a wide angle to the far corner. From there, the floodgates opened.

On scores from junior Aspen James, sophomore Isabelle Bastian and sophomore Emrie Sutton, Marsh Valley snatched a 4-0 halftime lead. They added one more in the second half, on a free kick from senior Tayzlee Belnap in the 44th minute.

This performance came just two days after the Eagles were shutout in a 1-0 loss to American Falls with the district title on the line.

Head coach Melissa Olsen said after the game that her girls put a little undue pressure on themselves Tuesday and were much more relaxed Thursday.

“We play best when we’re happy, and the girls were in a lot better mood, a lot happier — just less tension,” she said.

Asked if she could pinpoint the key difference in the performance on the field between Tuesday’s and Thursday’s games, Olsen said:

“Today’s creative play was a lot better, and that set us up for a lot better shots on goal.”

As she explained, Marsh Valley’s approach is focused more on crisp passing and assists than attacking the net and scoring goals.

That approach has worked wonders for the Eagles, who improved to 15-4-1 with Thursday’s win. And Marsh Valley was especially dominant in conference play.

Across 10 in-conference games — including the district tournament — the Eagles outscored their opponents 56-3. All three goals came against American Falls — two in an 8-2 regular-season victory and the other in Tuesday’s 1-0 loss.

Marsh Valley’s rivalry with the Beavers has been meaningful. After beating American Falls for the district championship last season, the Eagles saw them again in the state tournament and lost.

“We could have a flip-side repeat,” Olsen said, adding that rivalries and revenge are not at the forefront of her team’s attention. “If we do see them again, great. If we don’t, that’s great too.”

With their win Tuesday, American Falls advanced straight into the state pool. Marsh Valley, on the other hand, will have to win a state play-in game to earn a spot in the bracket.

Olsen told her team that, while the goal was to win district, Tuesday’s loss gives them two more chances to clean up some things and get some real-world preparation.

“Our biggest thing is, just playing our game and not getting stressed out by the competition that is brought to us,” she said. “When we keep a level head, we play a very beautiful creative-play game. If we can keep that level head as we go out on the field, I think that we have every chance of bringing home that banner.”

Boys team beats Beavers in extra time

While the girls were having their way offensively, the Marsh Valley boys team was engaged in a defensive struggle with American Falls.

The Beavers scored early to snatch a 1-0 lead, but Marsh Valley equalized late in the first half.

For the next 50-plus minutes, the two defenses held scoring chances to a minimum. And as the sunset approached at a light-less Marsh Valley field, the district championship game went into extra time in a 1-1 tie.

Head coach Jeff Smedley said that the calls coming in from the sideline were purely about encouraging his tired players.

“We were just trying to be positive, you know, ‘We got this. We believe in you,'” he said.

But for seven more minutes of the 10-minute extra period, the defenses were again unyielding. Things finally found a conclusion when senior Jaxson Smith got behind the American Falls defense and put the winner in the back of the net.

Smedley said he was very nervous heading into extra time, knowing that a loss would mean the same two teams would play again Saturday and cut short any rest and recovery time for his team. But as Smith connected on the winner and turned to celebrate with the Marsh Valley fans who poured onto the field, Smedley felt himself beaming with pride.

Now, they get those extra two days of rest before opening their state run next Thursday.

“If you look at our record the last two weeks, we’ve had some close games with some really good teams,” Smedley said. “We’re ready to play, we’re ready to show up this year.”