Colony girls hand Moose loss in opener

The Colony Knights girls' soccer team met the Palmer Moose Wednesday at Palmer High School in the first matchup between the two schools this season.

The Knights were able to keep the ball on the Palmer side throughout the majority of the game, getting a number of good shots to win the game 5-0.

"We had good defensive strength today," said Colony coach Lorie Miner. "We are still looking for the right combination of players we want to go with, but we have good depth on the team to help find that out."

Colony, playing in its fifth game of the season, looked much sharper in the match. The Knights demonstrated good teamwork by spreading the field and using all of their players to control and pass the ball.

Colony routinely seemed to have strikers in position around the goal to receive passes or rebound deflected shots. The defense did a good job stopping Palmer transitions before they were able to threaten the Colony goal.

The Knights controlled the tempo of the game from the onset, scoring three of their goals in the first half. The first-half performance had been a concern for Miner since the beginning of the season.

"We had a good warmup which helped us to have a good first half," said Colony coach Lorie Miner. "Our communication on the field was also much better today. I could hear the girls shouting directions from all over the field."

Colony goals were scored by Kelly Quinn, Amanda Deml, Kristina Klapperich, Sianna Garrod and Autumn Manelick. Siena Locke and Deml each recorded an assist in the game.

Colony goalkeeper Julie Coston recorded her third straight shutout by blanking the Moose - Coston shut out Houston and Seward in the previous two games.

"Our goals coming into the game was getting 50/50 balls, play our game and control the ball," Miner said. "We did a good job of that today."

The game was the first of the season for Palmer, which got off to a slow start in the season because of poor weather and field conditions.

The Knights went on to defeat Skyview 9-0 Thursday at Colony High School.

Garrod scored three goals, with Deml and Cheryl Bohmback scoring two. Quinn had three assists in the game and scored one goal.

Colony met a tough team in the Kenai Kardinals Friday, but overcame the challenge to defeat Kenai 3-2 at Colony High School.

Deml scored one goal for the Knights off a penalty kick, with Garrod and Ellie Munrow each adding a goal.

The Knights completed the packed week of soccer games by defeating Soldotna 4-2 Saturday.

Quinn scored one goal for the Knights and Deml added a goal from a penalty kick. Klapperich and Garrod added the other two goals for Colony.