The visiting Kenai Central soccer teams swept Homer on Saturday in Peninsula Conference action, with the boys winning 1-0 and the girls winning 5-1.
The Kardinals got a measure of revenge against the Mariners after the girls tied at 1 and the Homer boys won 1-0 when the teams faced off in Kenai on Tuesday.
The Kenai girls are 2-0-1 in the league and 3-0-1 overall, while the Homer girls drop to 0-1-1 and 1-1-1. The Kardinals boys are 2-1-0 and 2-1-0, while the Mariners are 1-1-0 and 1-1-0.
Kenai head coach Dan Verkuilen said the Mariners devoted extra attention to midfielder Kylee Verkuilen. The Kenai coach said the Kardinals were able to take advantage of that extra attention to open up gaps in the game.
In the 20th minute, Kate Wisnewski opened up the scoring for Kenai on a long free kick.
Then in the 35th minute, Verkuilen played the ball to Chloe Grimm, who crossed to Tait Cooper. Cooper played the ball back to Sarah Baisden for a goal.
With a few minutes left in the first half, Talia Weisser got the Mariners back to 2-1.
Just a few minutes into the second half, Katie Johnson put Kenai up 3-1 with an unassisted goal.
In the 60th minute, Brynnen Hanson made it 4-1 with an unassisted goal from 20 yards out.
In the 69th minute, Hanson was fouled in the box and Baisden converted the penalty kick for the final score.
Coach Verkuilen said the team’s big goal was to eliminate unnecessary corner kicks for Homer in the game and the Kardinals did that.
He said defender Grace Beiser was awarded player of the game for her work on Weisser, who gave Kenai a lot more trouble last time.
“As a team, we just played bad,” Homer coach Mike Tozzo wrote in a text message. “It wasn’t good all around. Bad soccer. Just bad.”
In the boys game, Rykker Dykema had the goal for the Kardinals, with Sawyer Vann posting the shutout.
Kenai head coach Shane Lopez also gave credit to Carson Grimm, William Wilson and Ben Harris for holding strong on defense.
