sports shorts for July 24, 2019
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Football
Charlo Viking football standout Landers Smith was the lone Mission Valley representative during Saturday night’s 73rd Annual Montana East-West Shrine Game at the Bob Green Field on the campus of Montana Tech in Butte.
Smith, who will be playing for Montana Tech in the fall, suited up for West. With 12 minutes left in the game and West down 21-12, Smith helped the team slice into East’s lead. He took a fake punt on the fourth down and rumbled for 47 yards to the five-yard line. The move set up a four-yard touchdown pass, cutting East’s lead to 21-19. East kept the lead, 28-22. The win marks the third consecutive victory for East in the series, and they now lead the all-time series over West 41-32.
Softball
This week, the 14U Polson Lakers and 16U Montana Mustangs head out to compete in the “A” Western National Championships at the Dwight Merkel Softball Complex in Spokane. The Lakers finished fifth at the state tournament in Missoula earlier in the season. The Mustangs are a recently assembled squad of Mission Valley all-star players.
Soccer
Polson’s soccer all-stars Pirates Robin Erickson, Mack Moderie, Bridger Wenzel and Lady Pirate Ashlee Howell joined other top soccer players from around the state as part of the 20th Annual Shodair Soccer Classic held at Carroll College in Helena on Saturday, July 13. Playing for West, Moderie scored a second- half game-winning goal. The West won 2-1 over the East.
Officials called the girls match following multiple weather and lightning delays ending the game in a scoreless draw.
Baseball
After capturing the Cal Ripken 12U Montana State Baseball League Championship crown two weekends ago in Kalispell, the Mission Valley Mariners 12U team headed to Meridian, Idaho to challenge teams from around the Pacific Northwest during the four-day regional tournament last weekend.
On Thursday, the Mariners opened the tournament with a narrow 5-4 loss to a solid Umpqua Valley team out of Oregon and dropped a 10-6 game to Nampa. The Mariners bounced back in the early games on Friday, blasting the Alberta team 13-0 to stay alive in the tournament, however, in the late afternoon game the gritty Sandy Oregon team slipped past the Mariners 6-5. The loss ended the Mariner’s 2019 season.
