MISSOULA — Both Missoula Sentinel soccer teams entered Saturday's matchups with Missoula Big Sky eager for a win.
The Spartans both drew on Thursday against fellow crosstown rival Missoula Hellgate. The Eagles, however, split with the Knights on Tuesday as the girls won and boys lost.
On Saturday, it was the Spartans getting back into the win column, as the boys beat the Eagles 4-0 while the girls won 3-0.
Jayce Gerstle's first-half hat-trick propelled the Spartans offensively. Gerstle converted on a penalty kick in the 10th minute before tallying two more in the 35th and 36th minutes for the Spartans. Finn Davis added a goal on an assist from Gerstle in the 70th minute for insurance for the Spartans (6-1-1) who closed out the win over the Eagles (0-7-0).
"Working together as a team (is important), whether it's our substitutes or our starters," Gerstle said. "We knew we didn't have a lot of our starters in and I guess we started off a little bit easier than we should've. (We) picked up toward the end of the first half, got a few goals and the team played well."
Audrey McElmurry opened the scoring quickly for the Sentinel girls in the first minutes of the opening half. Then Haley Wolsky added a pair of goals as the Spartans took a 3-0 lead into halftime and never looked back.
Sentinel improved to 5-0-3 while Big Sky fell to 3-2-2.
"After the draw we were just super motivated, we wanted to come out and beat Big Sky," Wolsky said. "We just played super well together as a team and we were able to come out with a win."
Both Sentinel squads take on Kalispell Flathead next Tuesday while Big Sky's teams host Kalispell Glacier.
Check out the video above for full game highlights.
