Colony boys grab soccer win over Kenai; girls play to tie

KENAI — The Kenai Central boys dropped a game to Colony 2-1 on Friday afternoon at Kenai.

The Kards now sport a 3-5-1 overall record.

“Our defense played hard in the second half, Keegan (Remsen) played a great game back there,” Kenai coach John Morton said. “We moved the ball really well, but they’re a tough team, and going into regions next week, we’re making improvements every game.”

Colony scored first with a header from freshman Harrison Menard in the 21st minute, and a goal late in the first half from sophomore Chris Olsen put the Knights up 2-0 at halftime.

“It was a pretty physical game, the referee let us play, and it’s not like it was a dirty, blatant foul-type of game, but they let us body up and play aggressive soccer,” Colony coach Jeremy Johnson said.

Kenai came out charging in the second half, aided partly by a wind they faced in the first half.

Three minutes into the second half, Nate Narlock was shot the ball in from long range and put the Kards on the scoresheet.

Despite Narlock’s goal, that was all Kenai could muster. Even with the loss, Kenai will be playing in the conference tournament starting next week.

“Every time you see a team, you’re picking up on who their key players are and just thinking about what you can do different,” Morton said. “The big thing we’re learning is just how to work better as a team.”

Colony holds a 10-3 overall record.

“We’re just trying to keep everybody healthy and we still have two matches before regions, so that’s all we’re doing,” Johnson said.

Girls play to tie

KENAI — The Kardinals and the Knights played to a 0-0 draw in an intense match that saw Kenai mostly control the pace.

Kenai was able to find the ball often and had more shots on goal than Colony did, but never found the net.

“It was frustrating in the fact that we spent the last two days shooting and taking shots, and we had great opportunities but we weren’t getting good kicks,” Kenai coach Dan Verkuilen said. “Their goalie did a nice job of keeping the ball in front of her, but I think she was a goalie that we could have scored on.”

Colony coach Lorie Miner was just glad to move on without a loss.

“Considering that our starting goalie is at home and that our starting forward is at home, and we got a bunch of injured and sick players, it’s good to come out with a tie,” Miner said.

Verkuilen said it’s disappointing to not score a win with the number of opportunities Kenai had, which included three shots that hit a crossbar or post.

“You want the kids rewarded for good work, and they did everything they had to,” Verkuilen said. “It sucks, because if we do this at regions we’ll be going to penalty kicks with a team that probably shouldn’t even be there, and anything can happen.”

Jenna Calhoun led the offensive attack more often than not, with support from Taylor and Allie Ostrander, who both described Colony as a scrappy team.

“They go hard to the ball,” Taylor said. “Their defense plays up to the midfield, so they’ll just kick it out and stay aggressive, and their defense boots it out of the box which makes it frustrating sometimes.”

“It’s very direct play,” Allie said. “They’re always going forward, they’re barely ever looking back, and if they do go back, it’s just to get a big kick forward.”

Verkuilen said the team is looking forward to playing strong in the conference tournament, and this game certainly helped them improve.

“When you play them here, it’s nice because you don’t know them, and it’s always physical, but the bottom line is they don’t allow a lot of goals,” he said. “It’s better than last year when we played two weaker teams and they got kind of complacent. Games like today keeps the girls on edge, and that’s where we need to be.”

Colony has a 4-3-3 overall record, while Kenai is 5-2-2.