Soldotna boys soccer tops Nikiski; Bulldogs girls cancel season

The host Soldotna boys soccer team defeated Nikiski 17-1 on Tuesday in Peninsula Conference action.

The Nikiski boys opened their season with the loss, while the SoHi boys improved to 1-0 in the league and 2-1 overall.

Dylan Hooper, Nikiski athletic director, said the Nikiski girls canceled their season Tuesday morning due to lack of players.

Angie Coelho, in her fifth year as head coach of the Bulldogs girls, said the team went to the jamboree early in the season, but then had to cancel an early game against Kenai.

More players talked about joining the team, but that never materialized, so the season was canceled.

The Alaska School Activities Association now classifies double division sports as one division being limited to those who were assigned female at birth, while the other division is open.

That allowed the Nikiski girls to join the boys in that open division. Six girls are on the team of 15.

Coelho, who will help out with coaching the team, said the arrangement allows her to keep building the girls program.

“It’s nice for the girls who really do want to play,” Coelho said. “They’re not penalized for not having a full team. So it gets them to where they can still have fun.”

With all of this happening Tuesday, though, the team had to scramble to get ready for Soldotna. Both Bulldogs teams had been practicing separately with limited numbers.

Nikiski boys coach Horst Haunold said he started with 12 players this season, but is down to nine. He’s been getting five or six at one time at practice.

“I’m just happy with the result,” said Haunold, in his third year. “I knew it was going to get bad. We hung in there.”

Soldotna head coach Erik Dolphin said it was a tough game to manage, but he added he thought his team hit its objectives.

Dolphin said he was aiming for about 12 goals, but ended up with a few more. At the same time, the coach commended his team for always staying respectful of the opponent.

“We want them to come back next year and still play, so we try not to run up the score,” he said. “But we did play our varsity. The plan was to play the main core of our varsity for 20 minutes.”

In the first 21 minutes, the Stars raced to a 9-0 lead. Liam Peck scored on a corner kick from Trae Pitsch, Lane Hillyer scored on a Harold Rudstrom assist, Daniel Heath scored on a Hillyer assist, Hillyer scored on a Marshall DeRaeve assist, Heath scored on a Simon Willets assist, Hillyer scored on a Rudstrom assist, Owen Buckbee scored on a Rudstrom assist, Rudstrom scored on a Hillyer assist, and Willets scored on a Hillyer assist.

“I think we played like 25 players or something like that,” Dolphin said. “Every single player that was on the bench that could get in the game did.

“A couple of guys got their first goals. It was worth it.”

After the SoHi starters left, the scoring slowed down considerably.

Both Haunold and Coelho were impressed by the work of Nikiski freshman goalie Emily Brannon. Coelho said Brannon could be a big piece of the program for years to come.

“It’s her first time playing soccer, really,” Coelho said. “She’s like, ‘I’ll play wherever you want me to play.’

“She’s the tallest on the team, she is really comfortable taking instruction, and she’s comfortable being outside her comfort zone.”

The two Nikiski coaches also liked the work of defenders Jaden Anderson, Sadie Porter and Maya Deveer.

“Dylan (Hall) is a really great all-around player,” Coelho said. “He saw the girls were kind of getting shoved around a little bit — just normal soccer play. Still he was worried, so he went back and helped them.

“But I felt Sadie and Jaden can hold their own on defense. They’re not afraid to get a little scrappy in there.”

To close the half, Jonas Albrecht scored on a Buckbee assist, Xavier Brown scored unassisted, James Alden scored on a Brody Linton assist and Silas Hughes scored unassisted.

SoHi goalie Luke Hillyer kept the Bulldogs off the board in the first half.

Two minutes into the second half, Nikiski’s Oliver Parrish crossed to Hall, who beat SoHi keeper Phoenix Goolsby for a goal.

SoHi then closed it out with Scott Bieber scoring on a Ryan Mcvey assist, Quenten Wolverton scoring unassisted, Mcvey scoring on a Wolverton assist and Xavier Brown scoring unassisted.

“There’s a lot of young guys that showed some stuff tonight that we might be able to use later down the line,” Dolphin said.

In soccer action on the peninsula on Wednesday, April 24, the Ketchikan girls play at Homer at 6 p.m. and the Ketchikan boys play at Kenai at 6 p.m.