FLATHEAD VALLEY — Flathead Valley had state soccer matches going on all day and was headlined by the two No. 1 seeds from western Montana in Class A.
For the boys it was the Columbia Falls Wildcats and for the girls the Whitefish Bulldogs.
Both teams managed to come away with wins on the day with the Whitefish girls playing first in the late morning against the Laurel Locomotives in an absolute thriller that ultimately needed to be decided by penalty kicks as both regulation and overtime ended with even scores.
At the end of regulation the teams were tied at 2-2 sending them to a 20 minute overtime period broken up into two 10 minute "halves". As the first 10 minute period came to a close, Laurel's Mya Maack sliced through the Bulldogs defense and found the back of the net to give the Locomotives a 3-2 lead.
Halfway into the second 10 minute period the Bulldogs rallied together and were able to tie things back up thanks to a strike from Sadie Olson just inside the 18-yard box with less than five minutes to play in the overtime period.
Overtime ended with a 3-3 scoreline which meant penalty kicks.
Both teams started strong, each converting their first two kicks respectively.
From there, Whitefish goalkeeper Norah Schmidt took over saving three consecutive penalty kick attempts from the Locomotives to officially secure a 4-3 win for the Bulldogs and a spot in the state semifinals.
On the other side of the valley the Columbia Falls boys hosted Billings Central.
The first half concluded with both teams failing to find the back of the net in what looked like an evenly matched contest between two defenses that bent, but at the time, refused to break.
Following a scoreless first half, the Wildcats began to take control of the game and managed to notch two goals en route to a 2-0 victory over the Rams to secure their spot in the semifinals and keep their perfect record this season alive.
With both one seeds advancing they secured home-field advantage for the semifinal round next week and sit only one win away from reaching the Class A state championship game.
Other Class A state soccer scores (Saturday unless otherwise noted):
Girls
Billings Central 5, Stevensville 0 (Friday, highlights here)
Hamilton 2, Livingston 0 (Friday)
Columbia Falls 6, Corvallis 3
Boys
Loyola 4, Lone Peak 0
Livingston 2, Stevensville 1
Whitefish 2, Hamilton 1
Class A semifinal round (times, dates TBD)
Girls
1S Hamilton @ 1N Whitefish
3N Columbia Falls @ 1E Billings Central
Boys
1S Loyola @ 1N Columbia Falls
2N Whitefish @ 1E Livingston
