PREP SOCCER: Bemidji boys, girls teams beat Little Falls in season openers

LITTLE FALLS - Senior Rachel Bitter had a goal and an assist as the Bemidji High School girls soccer team started the season with a 3-1 win against Little Falls on Friday.
Bitter opened the scoring at 13 minutes with an unassisted goal to put the Lumberjacks (1-0) up 1-0, but the Flyers (1-1) answered with a goal of their own 12 minutes later and went into halftime tied 1-1.
Sophomore Isabelle Morin gave Bemidji the 2-1 lead with an unassisted goal at around the 50 minute mark before freshman Kinley Prestegard scored at the 65 minute mark off an assist from Bitter.
“We had strong possessions,” said head coach Logan Larsen. “Our touch was a lot better than last year.”
Getting the win for Bemidji in goal was junior Laura Bieberdorf who made six saves.
The Lumberjacks are back in action today at 1 p.m. when they travel to St. Francis.
Larsen liked his team’s start to the season and is hoping for more against the Fighting Saints.
“I think it’s a fast pace of play right now,” Larsen said. “It was the start I liked to see.”
Boys win 5-0
Payton Christofferson scored a hat trick and Linaes Whiting added a goal and two assists as the Bemidji High School boys soccer team blanked Little Falls 5-0 Friday afternoon in the season opener for the Lumberjacks.
Christofferson scored just four minutes into the game, with an assist from Leo Spry, to give the Lumberjacks (1-0) the early lead.
Whiting scored 17 minutes into the first half with an assist from Brandon Wright and Bemidji took a 2-0 lead into halftime.
Whiting assisted Christofferson on two second-half tallies and Spry added the fifth goal, assisted by Wright, late in the second.
“We did the things we wanted to do in the opener,” BHS head coach Rick Toward said. “It was a good win for us.”
The Flyers (1-1) managed just one shot on goal the entire game.
It wasn’t all positive for the Lumberjacks, however. Senior goalkeeper Bruno Cheney suffered a knee injury about 10 minutes into the game and had to be substituted at halftime.
Luke Hess played the second half for the Lumberjacks.
Toward said Cheney would be assessed more thoroughly on Monday but the athletic trainer thought it could keep Cheney out of commision for a while.
“It could be costly,” Toward said. “We’re not sure exactly what it is but we’ll get him looked at again on Monday.”
As a result, the Lumberjacks will be slightly short handed today when they take on West Ottertail United in Fergus Falls. West Ottertail is a co-op between Hillcrest Lutheran, Pelican Rapids and Underwood.
“We’ll be a little light in terms of numbers today,” Toward said. “We’ll have to battle a bit.”