Colony coach earns 200th career victory

PALMER — Jeremy Johnson has had a pretty good week.

Last Tuesday, the longtime head coach of the Colony boys’ soccer team led the Knights to a win over Palmer, Johnson’s alma mater, in Palmer’s final game on the grass of Machetanz Field.

With the grass fields at Palmer and Colony set to be replaced in the coming weeks with artificial field turf, Monday was Colony’s turn to play its final home game on a grass field. Not only did Colony earn the victory, 2-0 over Wasilla, it marked Johnson’s 200^th win as head coach of the Knights.

Senior Sean Colette and junior Jake Spannagel each scored during the second half to help the Knights improve to a perfect 4-0-0 in Northern Lights Conference North Division play and give their head coach the historic victory.

“The last game against Kenai (Coach Johnson) kept saying 199. We had no idea what it meant. We got the win and he let us know. Today he said let’s get the 200^th win against Wasilla in the last game on this field,” Colette said after the victory. “Getting the 200^th win for coach in the last game on this field has been great.”

Colette ripped a shot through the fingertips of Wasilla goalie Corey Hogan during the 47^th minute to give the Knights their first lead. Asher Dale set up the goal for Colony.

Until that point, Hogan had stopped a number of quality Colony chances to keep the game scoreless.

“Corey did a really good job. He used his athleticism to make a couple of big saves,” Wasilla head coach Blake Livingston said.

Spannagel added to Colony’s advantage with a goal during the 61^st minute. The Knights pushed the play up the field and the ball took a bad bounce over the head of Wasilla’s final defender. Spannagel won a race to the ball and was able to tap a shot past Hogan, who challenged on the play. The ball trickled into the lower right corner of the Wasilla net.

Colette, who pushed a shot just wide of the far post during the first half said the continued pressure led to success.

“All those opportunities broke them down,” Colette said.

Livingston said he felt a change after Colony took the 1-0 lead.

“I felt like it was a pretty back-and-forth battle overall. After that first goal it seemed like the momentum shifted a little bit,” Livingston said.

Wasilla had a great opportunity with less than 20 minutes remaining in the contest. After a corner kick from the left, Kyler Perry and Oleg Lozko had chances at the nearside post, but the Colony defense and goalie Ricky Kubacki held strong to hold on to the shutout.

Johnson’s 200^th win comes in his 18^th season as the head coach. The 1992 graduate of Palmer High and former Moose soccer standout made his debut as the Knights head coach in 1995. Johnson comes from a long line of soccer coaches. His mother, Sandi, helped start the girls’ soccer program at Palmer High and coached the team for six seasons. Johnson’s grandfather, Willie Jenkins, was involved in soccer for more than 40 years. Jenkins was a longtime head coach at the alma mater of Johnson’s parents in Hampden, Mass.

“He’s absolutely my hero and my influence in life in general,” Johnson said of his grandfather.

Only Juneau-Douglas head coach Gary Lehnhart has more career wins in Alaska high school soccer history than Johnson.

Johnson said it wasn’t until recently that he thought he’d even have a chance at win No. 200.

“Not until a couple of years ago did I ever think about it,” Johnson said. “When I hit 151 and passed Ed Blahous I did say whoa, I’m only 30-something years old. Maybe I will get 200,” said the 38-year-old Johnson.

Blahous coached at Chugiak for 18 seasons.

Johnson credits his success to all who have passed through his program.

“It’s really a tribute to all the incredible players we’ve had over the years. All I can do is put the players out there on the field. They’re the ones who have to show up and train every day, and ones who have to work hard in practice and in games. They have to go to school, make sure they’re getting to class on time and getting the grades,” Johnson said. “All the credit goes to those guys and the coaches we’ve had throughout the years.”

Johnson’s Knights move into the upcoming Northern Lights Conference Championships as the No. 1 seed of the North Division. Colony will open tourney play against Nikiski on Thursday.

Colette said he feels good about the Knights’ chances during the tourney.

“We’ve stepped up throughout the season,” Colette said.

Wasilla finished the regular season 1-2-1 in North Division play and in a tie with rival Palmer. Livingston said the Warriors have the tiebreaker over the Moose and will be the tourney’s No. 3 seed. Wasilla opens play against Soldotna. The Moose will face Homer on Thursday.

“I think you learn a lot from a game like this. It definitely showed us what we need to fix before regionals,” Livingston said. “We’re optimistic we can go in and do well.”

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