Blackfoot finishes second straight season with trophy

BLACKFOOT — Coming off a third-place finish at the 2024 state tournament, the Blackfoot Broncos knew they were good enough to compete with the state’s top teams. After a slow start to the 2025 season, however, the results weren’t proving it.

Blackfoot began the season with a lackluster 1-2-4 record through seven games. But, head coach Liam Pope said, the squad, led by 10 seniors, stuck to the process.

“They were a seasoned group, so they didn’t panic,” the coach told EastIdahoSports.com. “The boys, they were patient. They believed in themselves and that we were on the right track.”

After making a few minor tweaks to the way they did things on and off the field, the Broncos turned their season around, winning nine of their last 11 games to claim the state 5A boys’ soccer consolation trophy. Blackfoot, after its turnaround and trophy-winning season, is the East Idaho Sports boys’ soccer Team of the Year.

Often, when asked what moment turned their team’s season around, a coach will recall a win or week of practice when a leader emerged. But Blackfoot had solid leadership, and all the talent in the world. Pope, with little hesitation, instead pointed to a loss.

Over a one-week period in mid-September, the Broncos faced a strong Idaho Falls squad — which Pope called the best team in the conference — twice. They tied the Tigers on Sept. 11, then lost 2-0 at home against the same team on Sept. 18.

But the team learned something about itself in those games, Pope said. They learned that, even when not playing at their best, they could compete with the best competition the state had to offer.

“Performance is the priority,” is something Pope preaches. “The scoreboard will take care of itself if your performance is at a high level.”

Led by this instruction and the move of the team’s leading scorer, Fernando Orozco, from midfield to striker, Blackfoot started to perform better, and the wins began to pour in.

Blackfoot also began to embrace some superstitions around that same time.

Pope started wearing a suit to games when the Broncos traveled to Shelley on Sept. 23. And after they beat the Russets, Blackfoot began celebrating with a “burst ball.”

“We almost started to mock the bad run,” Pope said. “At the end of every game, we started to praise the ball that we blew up by accident at Hillcrest. … We just needed to find a way to break the hoodoo.”

Blackfoot beat Shelley, then topped the Grizz at Skyline, 2-1, without co-captain and star defenseman Aaron Torres-Garcia — a performance Pope believes bolstered his team’s confidence.

But the season had one more test for the Broncos, when they lost on penalty kicks in the first round of the state tournament, a game Pope called “a gut-punch.”

The longtime Blackfoot coach said that he has led some teams that would have folded after such a heartbreaking loss — “one-two-barbecue, then been on the bus back home,” he said.

But he told this group after the game that he knew they had fight left in them.

“If you guys are who I think you are, tomorrow, we’ll turn up against Poky, and on Saturday, we’ll be playing for a trophy,” he recalled telling the team. “And they did — they are who I thought they were.”

They beat Pocatello 1-0, then topped Nampa in penalty kicks in the consolation championship.

The Broncos, having claimed trophies in back-to-back seasons, will lose those 10 seniors. But, as Pope said, they cannot be counted out next year, with several key players returning, including goalie Edwin Botello, midfielder Moisses Garcia and defenseman Boone Bowman.

“Don’t sleep on us,” he said. “I’m not going to make bold predictions, because IF are always there, Skyline is only going to get better as well, but don’t sleep on us.”