Colony girls lose, boys win against SoHi

SOLDOTNA — Though the Colony girls’ soccer team fell to Soldotna this weekend, the Colony boys’ team blanked the Stars in Northern Lights Conference play Friday night.

The Soldotna girls, who have finished third in the state the past three years, rolled to a 5-0 victory over Colony. The Stars move to 8-0 overall, while the Knights fall to 5-3-1.

In the boys game, Colony, last season’s state champ and runner-up the year before that, subdued the Stars 3-0. The Knights are 13-3-2, while Soldotna falls to 7-2.

A slow start doomed the Colony girls against Soldotna. The Stars had a 3-0 lead just 16 minutes into the match and the Knights were having a rough time just getting the ball past midfield for the first 20 minutes of the game.

Junior Peyton Johnstone was late for the match after taking a test, and entered eight minutes into the game.

Colony coach Lorie Miner said that was no excuse for the way her team played.

“I was disappointed through the entire game,” Miner said. “Our team is better than what we showed today.”

“Soldotna is a good team and Colony is a good team,” she continued. “Colony didn’t show up to play today.”

Just six minutes into the match, Soldotna’s Miranda Wolfe found Abi Tuttle in the corner of the box, and when Colony keeper Madison Zmuda charged, Tuttle placed the ball over her.

Six minutes later, Tuttle played a through ball to Wolfe, whose cross to Whitney Wortham landed in the back of the net.

The opening barrage climaxed when a Tuttle cross was deposited in the back of the net by Makenna Rosin at the 16th minute.

After that, Soldotna’s scoring pace slowed. Soldotna coach Jimmy Love thought that was because his team was content to play in the space it occupied, instead of going through the effort of finding new space.

Miner had a list of the shortcomings in the match: “Inability to beat the bounce. Inability to be first to the ball. Inability to connect passes. Inability to play our game.”

Just two minutes into the second half, Bailey Rosin played the ball out of the back to Reagan Schoessler, who played to Wolfe. She beat a couple defenders and the goalie for a 4-0 lead. In the 61st minute, Tuttle completed the scoring when she hopped past a couple of defenders and scored.

Love said Wolfe and Tuttle had some nice combinations to set up crosses and chances on net. While he would have liked to see more made of many of those chances, he didn’t have a whole lot to be displeased about on a day when Maddie Kindred recorded another shutout. Miner also gave Zmuda credit for limiting the damage of the Soldotna attack.

Colony boys 3, Soldotna 0

The Stars have presented solid midfield play this season, but the Knights controlled the midfield Friday and thus controlled the game. Soldotna took 16 goal kicks in the game, while Colony took just five. And the Knights had six corner kicks to Soldotna’s three.

SoHi head coach Darryl Byerley said he had six or seven SoHi freshmen at a time on the field Friday night, showcasing a new phenomenon in Northern Lights Conference soccer. With so many teams now on turf, an extended season means teams no longer feel pressure to get all their best players on the pitch just to get them some playing time before the conference tournament.

Both Byerley and Colony head coach Jeremy Johnson said a few key players were busy getting healthy Friday, throwing players into unfamiliar and lengthier roles.

But junior forward Ben Sande was on field for the Knights, and he proved to be a handful all day.

In the sixth minute, he was fouled in the box, earning the penalty kick. He doinked that chance in off the side post for a 1-0 lead.

“Ben’s our leading scorer,” Johnson said. “He has speed, but he also has the control to go along with that. Those two things are tough to handle.”

But SoHi keeper Bailey Jones put up a good fight. In the 18th minute, Harrison Menard set up Sande with a point-blank chance, but Jones made the sprawling save. In first-half stoppage time, Jones again dove to stop a Sande header.

Seventeen minutes into the second half, Jones showed excellent recovery reflexes when he gave up a rebound on a Jake Forstner rocket and sprung back to attention to again thwart Sande.

“(Jones) was good, but at the same time we would have liked to put more shots on frame,” Johnson said. “But against an inferior goalkeeper, it could have been 6 or 7-nil.”

Colony finally began to put the game out of reach in the 58th minute, when Menard played the ball into a crowded box. Forstner somehow waded his way through a mass of bodies to finish a chance from right in front of the goal.

Sande iced the victory with six minutes to play, when SoHi had players up the field for a free kick and that kick went short. Forstner started the counterattack by playing the ball up to Sande, and he weaved in and out of defenders for the goal.

Zach Zmuda had to turn away just a few serious challenges as he earned his eighth shutout of the year in net. Johnson said central defender Brett Hintz did a good job on controlling any threatening action near the Colony net.