Hillcrest girls soccer chasing history after third straight district championship

AMMON, Idaho (KIFI) — Three years, three district championships. Winning has become the expectation for the Hillcrest Knights girls soccer team, but there's still one accomplishment missing from their resume: a state championship.

After defeating rival Skyline for the third straight year in the district championship, the Knights are heading back to state with hopes of making school history.

"Not everyone can say they have a three-peat," senior Kenlee Jarrell said. "Every season is different. We have different girls. Girls have graduated. Girls have come up and stepped up."

Hillcrest has never won a girls soccer state championship, and no eastern Idaho team has claimed a 5A girls soccer state title since at least 2000.

For this year's senior class, the opportunity carries added meaning after last season ended in heartbreak.

The Knights entered last year's state tournament as one of the favorites before falling to Moscow in the semifinals in a penalty shootout. It was their only loss of the season.

For senior Quincy Daw, Hillcrest's all-time leading goal scorer, that loss remains difficult to forget.

"I feel like I'm still just not fully over it," she said. "I feel like it just made me want to work harder."

That disappointment has become motivation for a Hillcrest team determined not to experience the same ending again.

Senior Raine Jarvis says the loss also brought the team closer together.

"I think it showed us that you have to show up every game and give 100% to get where you want to go," Jarvis said.

Head coach Brian Nelson believes this year's senior leadership has separated the Knights from previous seasons. With 11 seniors on the roster, many of whom have played together for four years, the team has built its success around a philosophy Nelson calls "oneness."

"Oneness means unity. It means there's no one individual that's more important than others," Nelson said.

The Knights also feature some record-setting talent. Along with Daw leading the program in career goals, senior Brinley Nelson holds Hillcrest's all-time assists record.

Brinley, who is committed to Idaho State for soccer and tennis, has another connection to the program. Her father is the team's head coach.

"He's been my coach since I first started playing soccer, and I love it," she said. "He's basically just my biggest fan, just a lot closer on the field than in the stands."

Despite the individual accomplishments, players say their biggest strength is the bond they've developed.

Junior Olivia King says the seniors have helped shape the program's culture and that she wants to help them finish their high school careers with a championship.

"I want to do it for them," King said.

The Knights will open the 5A state tournament Thursday against Sandpoint, a familiar postseason opponent. The two programs have met at state in each of the previous two seasons, splitting a pair of overtime games.

This time, Sandpoint will have home-field advantage.

For Hillcrest, the goal is clear. After three straight district titles and two disappointing trips to state, the Knights are determined to bring home the trophy that has eluded the program.

"At the beginning of the year when we started practicing, they all had one goal, and that goal was to make it to state," Brian Nelson said. "And now we've made it to state, and now the goal is to win a championship."