BILLINGS — A total of 15 seasons of players on the Billings Central boys soccer team have come and gone from the program without touching the biggest prize on the Montana high school soccer scene.

The Rams’ women’s counterparts did it several times during that stretch, and later Saturday at Amend Park they won their all-time record 11th Class A state championship, making it made the most successful football program in the state.

For all that on-court pedigree of Central’s girls team, the boys, who entered this season with just one all-time title (2009), often came away empty-handed over the past decade and a half. . A 2023 state championship game loss to Whitefish on the Rams’ home field was a particularly brutal blow.

Now, a year after the angst at Amend – against the same Bulldogs team and at the same venue – the central boys team’s long wait is finally over.

The occasion and the Hollywood ending, like the Rams’ spectacular season, were perfect.

Sawyer Guenthner scored a goal in the second overtime period, completing a two-goal comeback for the Central boys soccer team as it avenged last season’s title game heartbreak (and many cases of heartbreak before that) in a 3-2 triumph over Whitefish.

The Rams (15-0-0), stuck in the unusual position of having a two-goal lead in the first half, didn’t sweat under pressure and held off the Bulldogs (11-3-1) for scoring three unanswered goals. , staying cool in Amend’s cold conditions.

Central’s choice to exercise patience rather than panic paid off, and when Bowman Seitz delivered a free throw that found sophomore Guenthner with 5:27 left in the second overtime to go forward, 15 years of bad memories were erased in that moment.

Not a bad achievement for central coach Bilechi Sumaili in his first year in charge.

“The problem with it now is I set expectations,” joked Sumaili, a former player at nearby Rocky Mountain College. “So I’m going to have to chase goals for a while before I’m 15-0 again.

“Look at everyone, everyone is excited. (It’s been) 15 years without a championship, so that means a lot. It means a lot to all parents, it means a lot to Central, it means a lot to the community.

The opening act of a trio for the state football title at The Magic City on Saturday (plus the Class A girls game and the Class AA boys game between Billings Senior and Billings West at Wendy’s Field on Daylis Stadium), the Rams entered the final as lightweights. favorites on paper with their impeccable record and the fact that they beat the Bulldogs by a 2-1 margin on August 31.

But a little more than 20 minutes into the game, Whitefish — wanting to prove it still had the talent to lead Class A despite graduating 12 seniors a year ago — had Central within a two goals.

An easy-to-spot handball on a cross into the Rams’ penalty area at 24:37 of the first half put Whitefish at the penalty spot, where Kyler Jonson converted the kick as the Bulldogs tied the game in first. blood.

Jonson’s second PK, arriving at 7:43 p.m., came after a more controversial call; Rams goalkeeper Logan Hutzenbiler was whistled for a foul during a collision while searching for a loose ball in the box, despite objections that the goalkeeper had recovered the ball as it fell to the ground.

Cole Bland, a senior midfielder from Central who already had one title game loss on his resume, then showed he was determined not to suffer another one.

Thirty-one seconds after Whitefish’s second goal, Bland fired a low shot that beat his goalie at his left post, cutting the Bulldogs’ lead to 2-1. And when the Rams had their own chance at the penalty spot after a Whitefish foul in the box with 26:49 left, Bland stepped up and scored the tying goal from 12 yards out.

“Cole Bland is the best leader on the team,” Guenthner said. “There was a little bit of worry because this whole year we never lost a goal, so we kind of had a little break and a little sense of worry. But our coach brought us together and says: “We are in this”. This is the result.

Perhaps inspired by Bland’s desire to bring Central back into the game, Guenthner, tired legs and all, made sure the Rams’ fight from two points down would not be in vain.

With the match hanging in the balance and both teams having good chances between Bland’s runner-up and Guenthner’s winner, the latter player – all 5ft 6in tall – stood up to throw the biggest header of his life on Seitz’s free kick with the threat. of an imminent penalty shootout.

It was hysteria for Central, which took its first lead of the game with the goal, but devastation for Whitefish.

“They came out and gave it their all, they left it all on the field,” first-year Bulldogs coach Eric Sawtelle said. “That’s just the way games go sometimes, you don’t get the result you worked so hard for. …We will come back next year. It will feed us, make us hungry.

Another tense five minutes followed as Whitefish raced to equalize, but when the Rams held on and the final whistle confirmed their title, Sumaili and the rest of the team immediately embraced each other in a scene of smiles and lots of dogs.

It was a moment 15 years in the making for the Central boys. In hoisting the first-place trophy, another piece of the school’s decorated football history was added to the tally.

Only this time, the Rams boys team finally had a title that could be theirs again.

“The mantra throughout the season was that we just win,” Sumaili said. “There’s no fun in losing. …Thank God they responded and we went out there and did our job. Brilliant work from these guys, brilliant work. I’m proud of them all.

Email Briar Napier at (email protected) or follow him on Twitter/X at @BriarNapier.