A look back at some of the great games from 2015

WASILLA — As we bid farewell to one year and venture into the next, it’s common to reflect. In the last edition of the Frontiersman I took a look at, what I felt were, the top storylines in Mat-Su sports in 2015. As it seems to be the case every year, as I looked back on the past 12 months of sports coverage, I realized how many great games I had the chance to cover in the last year.

To add to our year-in-review coverage, I put together a list of the high school games I covered in 2015 that stand out in my mind as some of the best of 215.

Girls state basketball buzzer-beater

This could go down as one of the most memorable girls’ basketball games I’ve covered during my time at the Frontiersman. Two Valley teams playing each other on the state’s biggest stage. And it created a great lede.

“When the game is on the line, sometimes you just need a little faith.”

Colony senior Faith Farris hit a three-pointer at the buzzer to give the Knights at 45-43 win over rival Wasilla during the first round of the ASAA/First National Bank 4A State Basketball Championships in Anchorage.

It’s a game that never lacked for excitement. The Farris three came on the heels of Wasilla’s Catherine Baham hitting a free throw with five seconds left to tie the game at 42. The only bad part is, a Valley team had to lose.

A thrilla’ in Wasilla

I had originally planned to put together a top-10 list for my best high school games of 2015. But my top two games from the year put the kibosh on that idea. Frankly, I couldn’t choose. The Ferris three at the buzzer was epic, as big as Luke Schruf’s goal with 1 minute, 13 seconds left in double-overtime that gave Wasilla a win over defending state champion South Anchorage in the first round of the 4A state hockey tournament and the Menard Sports Complex in Wasilla.

The buzzer-beater or an overtime hockey goal, which is better? You might as well ask me to choose which of my kids I like better.

Colony also enjoyed a thrilling victory during the first round of the state hockey tournament, edging Dimond 1-0. The rivals met in the third-place game, with Wasilla scoring the victory over Colony. It marked the second straight season in which Wasilla placed third in the state tourney.

The game was also a pair of memorable Colony-Wasilla matchups in the postseason. A week earlier, Colony won its first conference title since 2002.

Hawks soar to hockey gold

Keeping with the hockey theme, Houston’s 3-0 win over Monroe in the 3A state championship game is also on my list of most memorable games from 2015.

Houston captured its seventh state title in school history with the win, and snapped a string of consecutive losses in the 3A championship match. Tristan Hracha, Yuriy Natekin and Reed Humphreys scored, and goalie Aaron Allred was stellar with his 36 saves.

Wasilla’s five-set volleyball suspense

The Wasilla Warriors were the queens of the five-set thrillers on the volleyball court in 2015.

Wasilla’s most notable, and most exciting, wins of 2015 came in matches that went a full five games. The Warriors capped the regular season with a 3-2 win over rival Palmer, and used the victory to clinch the No. 2 seed in the Northern Lights Conference Championships. With raucous student sections for both Palmer and Wasilla, the match provided the greatest atmosphere I witnessed during the prep volleyball season.

Wasilla, the NLC runner-up, opened its 4A state tournament with a 3-2 upset of Mid-Alaska Conference champion West Valley in the first round. The Wolfpack loss was their first best-of-5 defeat of the 2015 campaign.

Later in the tournament, the Warriors scored another elusive win, beating NLC rival Kodiak 3-2 in consolation action. The win was Wasilla’s first in four tries against Kodiak.

For volleyball fans, a tournament match going to a fifth game is like a basketball game going to overtime. And the Warriors certainly provided their fans with plenty of excitement this season, especially during the state tournament.

Unhittable

A baseball game that ends with the mercy rule doesn’t typically appear on many lists of most memorable games. But in some cases, there’s an exception to the rule.

Wasilla’s Nolan Monaghan used his second no-hitter in as many starts to lead the Warriors to an 11-1 six-inning mercy rule win over Soldotna in the Southcentral Conference title game in May. The Wasilla offense did provide 11 runs off nine hits, but the Warriors could have plated only two runs and the results would have been the same. Monaghan was dominant. He fanned 13 hitters. The lone SoHi run came on an error after a Monaghan walk.

A week before, Monaghan tossed a no-hitter during a 10-0 win over Kodiak that clinched the top seed in the conference tournament for the Warriors.

More than a game

The state wrestling championships have to find a home among the most memorable contests on the 2015 calendar.

For the first time in nearly two decades, the 123A and 4A championship matches were held simultaneously on adjacent mats under the same roof, providing an electric atmosphere.

Plus, six of the nine Valley wrestlers in the finals won titles, and there were no shortage of memorable moments during the championship round. And crazy to say, but my most memorable moment actually came in a match in which a Valley wrestler lost.

Late in the 132-pound final, as Wasilla’s Berit Sturgeon battled Greg Shack, an undefeated grappler from South Anchorage, the foes were locked in a tie. The standing-room-only crowd at Bartlett High School in Anchorage erupted in a chant, “Berit.” Fans at an Anchorage venue cheering for the Valley kid. Good times.

Shack was awarded with an escape point with 17 seconds left in regulation, but Sturgeon wrestled a fantastic match.

Colony’s Levi Hopkins also captured wrestling gold in thrilling victory, using the ultimate tiebreaker to beat South’s Scott Harris. Wasilla’s Micah Mathis won his second straight state crown with a dominating victory over Lathrop’s Tyriq Jones, the only wrestler to beat Mathis prior to the state tourney in 2015.

Colony’s Robert Haan and Dawson Nash, and Houston’s Ezra Lincecum also captured state titles at the meet.

I’m a big fan of ASAA’s decision to host the championship finals of both classes at the same time and same place, and am already looking forward to the 2016 finals.

Defense wins championships

Next to the introduction of former Knights star Rhett Magner as head coach of the Colony program, the main storyline for Knights football in 2015 was their defense.

There’s truth to the old saying, “defense wins championships.” Colony proved that in 2015, riding its defense to a Railbelt Conference title. Colony’s defense was stellar throughout the final six weeks of the regular season. The Knights earned its first shutout of rival Palmer in program history in Week 2. But the performance of the year may have come in Colony’s 12-9 victory over Lathrop the following week.

The Knights forced five Lathrop turnovers en route to scoring the big Railbelt Conference win.

And many, many more

I could easily go on. There are already a half-dozen or so more games I could easily add to my list.

There are the Colony-Wasilla basketball games at Wasilla High in 2015. Colony’s Anton Chamblee hit a pair of free throws with 1.8 seconds left in regulation to give the Knights a 49-47 win over the Warriors.

In girls’ action, Colony’s Ashley Turcotte hit a free throw with 0.9 seconds left in the fourth quarter to force overtime, but Wasilla pulled through in the tiebreaker to edge the Knights 48-44.

I am sure there are many more games on the court I could recall. I know there are more from the rink, and a few soccer matches that deserve to be on this list.

But that’s a great thing about covering sports in the Valley. There’s no shortage of great moments.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.