In the 2023 soccer season, the girls’ varsity team was able to secure 9 victories in their short season. Their overall record was 9-4-3, a record that is both impressive and well-earned. The team had to overcome many difficulties in the season, including the death of one of the assistant coaches in the middle of the season, Colin Snodgrass. The successful season reflects the team’s resilience and athletic ability, both of which they have in droves.
The team’s impressive and consistent performance throughout the year resulted in them placing second in the conference at the end of the regular season, second only to their crosstown rival, Hellgate. Hellgate is known for being perpetually good at soccer, and their team finished with 12 wins, 1 loss, and 1 tie. Sentinel managed to have a tie with Hellgate at the end of the season, with a score of 1-1. This is impressive, because Hellgate had been averaging over 4 goals per game, and Sentinel managed to hold them to only 1. Also, earlier in the season, Hellgate smothered Sentinel with a score of 5-1. Sentinel was able to stop the scoring and not let Hellgate add a 13th win to their record.
Briel Powers led Sentinel in goals throughout the season, with 7 credited to her through the 16 games played. She also had two assists, bringing her total score on the season to 16 (2 points for a goal, 1 point for an assist). The scores for the Sentinel players were more balanced than other teams; many Sentinel players had roughly the same amount of points. Other teams were more imbalanced, with 1 or 2 players having almost all of the team’s goals. Luke Olsen led the team with an impressive 15 goals.
This is not necessarily a bad thing for teams to have a star player, but it means that if that player gets injured, the team’s performance will take a dip. Sentinel’s team being more balanced means that each game is more of a team effort, and they are stronger because of it.
Defense is also a strong suit for Sentinel. They allowed the second least goals out of all teams, second only to -you guessed it- Hellgate. Though Sentinel didn’t score all that many goals throughout the season, the team didn’t let their opponents score a lot, and this is a lot of the reason they were so successful.
Sentinel got better throughout the season also. They started out the season with 4 wins in a row, but the wins were against opponents that placed lower than them and did not have many wins. These wins shouldn’t be discredited, but the stretch of 4 games at the end of the season when they didn’t lose is more impressive. They had to face opponents who were truly competitive in every sense of the word, and they were successful against them.
It wasn’t all great for Sentinel though, despite what their record reflects. The middle of the season was rough for the team, for more reasons than one. For one, the girl’s varsity had their longest streak without a win, going 4 matches in a row with either a tie or a loss.
The success story for the girls lines up with that of the boys’ team. The boy’s team finished with a record of 9-4-1, matching the same amount of wins and losses as the girl’s team. For the boys though, when they won, they trounced their opponents. They scored 43 more times than they were scored on, and they did not let their opponents score in 8 out of the 14 matches they played.
The story of the season for the boys this year was their ability to stop their opponents from scoring. They only allowed 14 goals to be scored on them the entire season, averaging 1 per game. On the other hand, they averaged a little more than 4 goals per game on offense. Surprisingly, this impressive statistic only left them 4th on the season in their conference for total goals. The boys also finished 4th overall in their division, behind Hellgate, Capital, and Glacier. Glacier had the most wins in the State, but their 1 loss kept them from being the 1st seed in the state tournament.
The boys’ team from Bozeman went undefeated on the season, despite three ties. They finished 11-0-3 (not counting the tournament game). They capped off their perfect season with their 10th soccer state championship in their high school’s history.
As for Sentinel, the team made the quarterfinals but was beaten out by a score of 1-0 by Bozeman. This means that both Sentinel teams, boys and girls, were beaten out of the playoffs by Bozeman. Bozeman is a formidable opponent, and they may be for a while. Their star player, Kale Edwards is only a junior, and they have a lot of support on their team from others.
For Sentinel, the boys’ star player, Luke Olsen led the team with an impressive 15 goals. Though he has played his last game as a Spartan, his younger brother Blaise Olsen is eager to follow in his brother’s footsteps. Blaise played some minutes on varsity this year as a freshman and was even credited for a goal in one of the games. As a freshman, this is a major accomplishment, and Blaise will likely lead the team in the future.
Students are already looking forward to next season and the players are eager too.
