BOZEMAN — For only being in their second year as a program, the Gallatin girls soccer team has made it known they belong in Class AA. Heading into the postseason the Raptors only had one loss on their record (9-1-4) and are now just hours away from playing in the State AA Championship.
“We’ve worked super, super hard this season and it’s really nice to see all of our hard work kind of coming through, and this is a really exciting game for us," senior forward Madison Anderson said. "We’re really grateful.”
The Raptors punched their ticket to the title game on Tuesday by taking down Western AA top seed Helena High in a one-goal victory.
“We played them last year, and we knew they’re a very good team," Raptors head coach Joel Ganey recalled. "We knew we were going to be in for a battle. I think the experience of playing them last year really helped us and gave us a good confidence boost to be like hey we can beat this team.”
With being such a young program, Gallatin players say they’ve thrived being looked at as the underdog this fall.
“We always say we have a chip on our shoulder because people look at us as the underdogs," junior forward Indigo Andresen said. "We just want to keep fighting and prove that we’re good and we’re here to win.”
Junior forward Olivia Collins has helped them do just that leading the Eastern AA with 14 goals this season, but finding the back of the net this Friday might not be as easy as the Raptors prepare for Billings West.
"Obviously they haven’t lost this year," Ganey stated. "They’re undefeated. I mean they just really don’t have any weaknesses, but I think we like our chances. They’ve tied against us twice, and that’s their only blemishes on their record, so we feel confident we can come in and give them a game. If we continue to focus on the things that we’ve been working on, I think we have a chance.”
“We’re expecting a tough game, but nothing we can’t handle," Anderson said.
The State AA championship game is set to start at 6 p.m. Friday night at Amend Park in Billings.
