Colony seniors continue to set table in Knight wins

PALMER — Matt Kelly and Logan Basner have spent their senior season setting the table for the Colony Knights. On Monday, they continued dishing it out.

Kelly and Basner combined to set up all three Colony goals during a 3-1 win over the Wasilla Warriors at Colony High School.

“Matt Kelly, Basner, Hunter (Fisher), Avery (Smith) – the guys contributing today are the guys who have been contributing all season,” Colony head coach Jeremy Johnson said. “Sean Collette, great goal today. He’s been continuing to work hard.”

The Colony seniors helped force a tie at the top of the Northern Lights Conference North Division standings. Colony and Grace Christian now deadlocked at the top of the North. Johnson said he believes it’ll take a coin flip to decide the top two seeds for the upcoming conference championships, which start Thursday at Colony High.

Wasilla will enter the tourney third and Palmer is fourth.

Smith followed a Kelly through ball in the net during the ninth minute to give the Knights the early 1-0 lead. Early in the second half, Kelly sent a cross from the right side. The ball found its way to Collette on the left, who struck a shot into the Wasilla net.

About seven minutes later, Fisher headed a ball off a long Basner throw-in straight into the net.

Johnson liked the offensive production of his leaders, but also the overall defensive play of the Knights, especially against Wasilla senior standout and leading goal scorer Paul Sliwa.

“The defense as a whole did a real good job, containing Paul, not giving him a whole lot of chances,” Johnson said. “We all know what you’ve got to watch out for with Wasilla is Sliwa.”

Senior Kyle Welton put Wasilla on the scoreboard during the 72nd minute. Welton raced down the right side of the field, and knocked the ball into the net.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/matsu_sports.