Saturday soccer: Ketchikan boys, Wasilla girls win soccer tourneys

The Ketchikan boys won the Kenai Invitational Cup and the Wasilla girls won the Homer Soccer Tourney to headline soccer action Saturday on the Kenai Peninsula.

The Kings marked themselves as a team to watch among contenders for the Division II state title by topping Division II Grace Christian on Thursday, Division II Kenai Central on Friday, and Division I Wasilla by a score of 3-1 on Saturday at Ed Hollier Field at Kenai Central.

The Wasilla girls defeated Kenai Central 2-1 in overtime on Saturday at Homer High School. The Kardinals fell to 4-1 overall and also conceded their first two goals of the season.

The Kards were first on the board six minutes into the game, when Katie Johnson scored with help from Christine Goering.

Wasilla had it tied by the half. The teams went to two 10-minute overtime periods. Late in the second extra period, the Warriors scored to take the win.

The Soldotna girls took third at the tourney with a 3-0 victory over Grace to improve to 2-3 overall.

Ryan Queen had the shutout for the Stars, while Jazzalynn McDonald scored twice and Jillian Duncan added a tally. Valerie McAnelly had an assist.

The Ketchikan girls took fifth place by defeating Homer 2-0. The Mariners fall to 2-3 overall.

Seventh place went to Redington with a 6-1 victory over Homer 2.

At the Kenai Invitational Cup, the Soldotna boys defeated Kenai 1-0 for third place. The Stars are 4-2 overall, while the Kardinals are 3-2-1.

The game was further evidence the race for the Division II state boys title could be tight.

In addition to the tight loss to SoHi, Kenai has defeated Ketchikan 2-1, lost to Ketchikan 1-0 on penalty kicks and played to a scoreless tie with Homer.

The only two goals the Kardinals have conceded all season have been penalty kicks.

Soldotna head coach Erik Dolphin said the key will be scoring goals.

“Everything we do is around high quality chances at volume, so not being able to put any in yesterday and one today is very frustrating,” he said. “It’s something where we’re going to go to practice and try to sort it out, because we have all the firepower we need to score goals.”

Kenai was playing with less firepower due to injury. Scoring threat Miles Metteer was injured Friday against Ketchikan, as was goalie Bradley Morrison.

Sawyer Vann, another top Kenai scoring threat, switched to goalie against the Kings, then injured an ankle while at goalie, meaning he could play goalie, but not in the field, Saturday.

Soldotna started fast and earned a penalty kick 11 minutes in, but Vann stopped Lane Hillyer.

That gave Kenai momentum and the Kards had most of the ball until the 21st minute, when Soldotna got a penalty kick. This time, Simon Willets scored the decisive tally.

From that point on, both defenses did well to keep quality scoring chances to a minimum.

“We couldn’t get the final ball to get a high quality chance,” Dolphin said. “We had some chances on goal, but none of them were super high quality.

“It’s hard to score difficult goals.”

Kenai head coach Shane Lopez said young players Lucas Swanson, Carter Felchle and Reid Titus did a great job filling in for the injured players, but the Kardinals couldn’t get a chance good enough to keep Luke Hillyer from the shutout.

“Luke is really hard to score on,” Dolphin said. “When you have a really high quality chance, I think they had two right in front of the net, there’s one for sure that Luke made a big save on.”

Dolphin said Daniel Heath had a big game, serving on the back line, then running all the way up to join the attack when the Stars had possession for long enough.

The coach also commended Lane Hillyer, Willets and Trae Pitsch for solid midfield play.

Dolphin also commended Kenai’s defense and midfield for making high quality chances hard to come by.

“They’re so fast and physical that even if you see it and have the skills to make it, you’ve got somebody on you, they’re pressuring and they’re physical, so it becomes difficult to execute,” he said.

The tournament was a nice approximation of the three-day effort it will take to win state.

“I’m proud of these guys,” Dolphin said. “Early in the season, to go and try and win three games in a row is challenging, but that’s what you’ve got to do at the end of the season.”

In the fifth-place game, Homer defeated Grace Christian 5-2 to move to 2-1-1 overall. Kai Waltenbaugh had a hat trick for the Mariners, while Espen Hennick and Kaiden Bogie added tallies.

Kodiak defeated Redington 4-1 for seventh place.

Homer Soccer Tourney

All-tournament team: Faith Mondeel, Grace; Eva Knight, Grace; Channing Lowney, Homer; Kate Wisnewski, Kenai; Christine Goering, Kenai; Sarah Baisden, Kenai; Chelsey Weber, Ketchikan; Ryan Queen, Soldotna; Mylee Anderson, Wasilla; Lainey Kroon, Wasilla; Holly Marsh, Wasilla.