—Chelsea Brist - Arrow Staff

   The Braves soccer team had hoped to sweep away the competition in Helena this year at state, and that is just what the Braves did — until they met Missoula Sentinal in the final match.

   When Sentinal reached the soccer field, FHS players saw about five guys on the Sentinal team had cut designs in their hair the night before the championship game hoping to psyche out the Braves.

   "I thought that cutting designs in your hair is a stupid way of trying to psyche out your opponents," said senior Pat Wettach. "The haircuts didn’t psyche me out at all."

   The first game the Braves played was against Helena High on Oct. 26t; the Braves won 3-0.

   "The win against Helena High gave us a lot of confidence and made us believe that we could win the whole thing because we played really well," said junior Markus Riley.

   The Braves second game was against Bozeman, and once again the Braves came out on top, 2-0.

   "I was really relieved that we beat Bozeman in the semi-finals because once you make it through the semi-finals you know that you’re going to come out getting first or second," said senior Jon Stebbins.

   For the title game against Sentinal, the Braves admit they weren’t quite as fired up as their opponents.

   "After Sentinal scored the first goal I was extremely worried because their defense was playing very solid; and that was like a flashback of last year’s game against Sentinal," said Wettach.

   "I was very disappointed about the loss to Sentinal," said senior Jon Fetter-Vorm. "We should have beat them; we were playing very well the first half. We were very anxious to get some early goals. That is why we missed so many."

   Braves coach Tom McFarlene says that the Braves played well at state.

   "Flathead played very well at state," said McFarlene. "If we could have scored first we would have had a better chance of winning the state title. But after Sentinal scored first in the game it was hard for us to come from behind and get all of the skills together."

   Some of the players were disappointed, but they did have a good season. They set records such as a winning streak of 14 games and the most goals: 83.

   Part of the team’s success includes pre-game rituals that provided the team with good luck. Some of these rituals include special handshakes, pre-game prayers and traditions.

   "We always have a group prayer before each game," said Riley. "We have done this all year long."

   "For good luck before each game when I get on the field I do a little handshake with my defender and the other goalie so that we have a good game," said Stebbins. "Seniors Mike Herzog and A.J. Nash chug the same amount of cups of water as the number of games they have played. So if it was the seventh game of the year they would each chug seven cups of water."

   Said senior Mark Ruby:

    "We had a goal the whole season and that was to win state but we fell a little short of that goal this year."

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