Whitefish Girls Soccer Secures Class A Title With Nail-biter Win Over Columbia Falls

In a flash she scooted across the soccer pitch, sure in her maneuvers and confident the time was right.

It was early in the second half of the Class A state soccer championship Saturday and Atley Bingham’s Whitefish team was clinging to a 1-0 lead in front of more than 500 fans at Smith Fields. Defending state champ Columbia Falls was growing increasingly more agressive and the cat-quick, 5-foot-2 Bingham decided the Bulldogs needed to do some attacking.

The sophomore dribbled from near the halfway line all the way deep into the Wildkats’ 18-yard box before dishing to teammate Jenna Kimble. She tapped the ball into the net and the goal proved to be the difference in a 2-1 victory under overcast skies.

“That’s what she’s been doing all year,” Whitefish third-year coach Kelly Ordway said of Bingham. “She’s got amazing technical skills that she’s been building for years and she has that confidence to drive straight at the defense.

“She usually pulls a defender and then dips it off to other players. She’s a very selfless player and she also scored 26 goals for us this season. That was the team high.”

Asked why she decided to dribble so far on her own to deliver what proved to be a pivotal assist, Bingham smiled.

“Honestly I just really wanted to win,” she said. “Our team has been working so hard for this the entire season, even through the summer.

“The only thing I could think about was just winning state. I just believed in myself and thought I could do it and just knew Jenna (Kimble) would make that shot go in the back of the net. We’ve been working on that dish-off in practice and even in our warmup and I just thought it was a great opportunity. Just a perfect pass for her to finish it in the bottom left.”

The goal left fans on both sides feeling like a Whitefish win was inevitable. But Columbia Falls, who lost to the Bulldogs and tied them in the regular season, cut its deficit to 2-1 in the 69th minute. Riley Byrd delivered a perfectly placed corner kick to far post and June Johnston tapped it in.

That made for a frantic final 10 minutes. But Whitefish, with its strong senior keeper Marlis Nargi and stellar defenders, held off the Wildkats.

“We’ve been great in set pieces all year and scored off a corner last week too in the semifinals,” noted Columbia Falls coach Thomas Clark, who has guided his team to the finals three of the past four seasons. “The bigger problem was we couldn’t score in the run-up plays in this game.

“Whitefish is a good group defensively. Their big players made big plays and have in our other matchups, too. This one will sting for a little bit but I’m proud of our seniors and the whole group.”

A fortuitous bounce paved the way for Whitefish’s first goal in the seventh minute. Junior defender Grace Sliman proved to be in the perfect spot after a teammate knocked a shot off the keeper. She hammered the ball past two Columbia Falls defenders.

“They just play so well as a team,” Ordway said of her team. “They connect passes and attack as a whole, defend as a whole and depend so well on each other.”

According to Bingham, a change in strategy helped pave the way for two goals.

“We switched our formations from a 4-3-3 to a 3-5-2,” she noted. “Last time it was just sort of me up top because we had our wing backs that weren’t really helping. Switching our formation made it a lot easier for us on attack. That really helped us win this game.”

The unsung hero for the Bulldogs was senior keeper Marlis Nargi. She stopped everything the Wildkats kicked her way except for the one corner kick.

“She played excellent,” said Ordway, who noted that Nargi has aspirations of playing goalie for the UMass hockey team next year. “She stepped up amazingly as a goalkeeper for us. That was a spot that we really needed to build.”

When the final whistle sounded three times and Whitefish started its celebration, a loud fan section celebrated as well. It marked the first time in three years the Bulldogs had earned top honors. 

“Columbia Falls is an excellent team and I’m just so happy for our girls,” Ordway said. “They absolutely deserve it. They’ve been working so hard for so many years before this to bring this goal to fruition. I’m just so proud of them.” 

Notes: Whitefish finished with a 15-1-1 record and Columbia Falls with a 14-2-1 mark … In addition to the Bulldogs’ heroes on the attack and in net, the team benefited from stellar defensive play led by junior Sage Ordway and senior Delila Vine.   

This article originally appeared in 406mtsports.com