The Bengals Win It

Win or lose, tears were going to be shed by Idaho State’s soccer players after Sunday’s emotional game over Montana for the Big Sky Championship. It was just a question of whether or not they were going to be tears of joy or just plain tears.  Thanks to the spectacular play by tournament MVP Sheridan Hapsic, there were tears of joy, as the Bengals celebrated their first Big Sky Championship since 2006.
“I said no matter what happens today this is their last game on Davis Field, said Allison Gibson. “Let’s take them out on top.”
There is an old adage in sports ‘It’s not how you start it’s how you finish’ The Bengals season wasn’t always the prettiest. They weren’t the most dominant team in the conference, but they finished as champions and that’s all that matters.  After a loss to Weber State on Oct. 6 the Bengals were in sixth place and were on the verge of missing the tournament for the second consecutive year. They had lost five out of nine games and were struggling to muster any kind of offense.
After that Weber State game team members gathered together and rededicated themselves to the season. Senior Anna Pingree, after the Weber State loss, said the losing was simply going to stop. She said it so defiantly that it came off as a declarative statement as opposed to just a player’s opinion.
It turned out she was right.
The Bengals went on to win the last four games of the regular season and clinched the No. 1 seed in the Big Sky Tournament.
Clinching the No. 1 seed was crucial for the Bengals, who were undefeated at home all season.
In the first match of the tournament the Bengals faced off against Weber State.  The Wildcats were in control for the majority of the time but Ellsworth was able to score with just a few minutes left in regulation to send the game into overtime. The Bengals beat the Wildcats in a shootout 4-3 to advance to play Montana.
After the game Hapsic said that there was no way she was going to let her teammates down. She used the same defiant tone that Pingree had over a month ago, and everyone who heard it took it as fact.
If the 1,344 fans in attendance thought that the championship match couldn’t be any more intense than the previous- they were wrong.
The championship match was a back and forth grudge match. Both teams held strong and refused to lose. The game went into overtime tied 0-0. Hapsic made one miraculous play after another and the score remained 0-0 after the first overtime.
In the second overtime it was more of the same. Both teams played a ‘bend but not break’ style of defense. When the buzzer sounded, the Bengals were lining up for penalty kicks for the second consecutive game.
As stated before, in a penalty-kick shootout, five players from each team get a one-on-one shot against the opponent’s goalie. ISU hit shot one, missed shots two and three, then hit the final two. Montana hit shots one, three and five with ISU’s Hapsic blocking Montana’s second and fourth shots, leaving the teams tied at 3-3. At this point the contest went to sudden death, with the first team to gain the advantage winning. ISU’s Allyson Stainbrook scored against Griz goalie Kristen Hoon, and Hapsic then sealed the Bengal win with a headlong dive and deflection of a final effort by UM’s MacKenzie Akins.
The win means the Bengals will face Stanford in Palo Alto, Cal., on Friday, Nov. 9 at 8 p.m. MST in Round One of the NCAA College Cup Tournament.
Additional content provided by Adviser Jerry Miller.