Dueling shutouts

WASILLA — Wasilla goalkeeper Sammy Becker had to work for her shutout. Kenai keeper Lacie Wortham had to work even harder.

The Kenai goalie made a number of game-saving stops to preserve a 0-0 tie with the Wasilla Warriors at Wasilla High School on Thursday.

“She was a top goalie last year and took some goals away from us,” Wasilla head coach Amber Craig said of Wortham. “And same thing, she took some goals away from us today.”

Wasilla consistently fed the ball into its forwards in Kenai’s defensive third, but Wortham prevented the Warriors from notching their Northern Lights Conference-high seventh win and forced WHS (6-0-2) to settle for its second tie of the season.

“We had our opportunities and we didn’t finish,” Craig said. “Either we weren’t there for that far-side crash or their goalie came up with a great save.”

Amy Jo Coonrod, Rachel Kennedy and Lina Shadrach each could have potentially knocked in the game-winner during the final 10 minutes of play.

Kennedy collided with Wortham during the 70th minute, after trying to follow a Warrior pass in. Four minutes later, Coonrod just missed a goal off a Tabitha Bare cross.

During the 78th minute of play, Wortham nearly let a Shadrach kick from the middle of the field slip through.

Even though Becker’s save total didn’t rival Wortham’s the Wasilla senior keeper made a handful of key saves to preserve the tie.

With Kenai’s Holly Perkins crashing, Becker ventured away from the net and into traffic to intercept a Kenai cross from the left side.

Late in the first half, with Perkins right at the door step of the Wasilla goal, Becker scooped up the ball to prevent a potential score.

During the final minutes of play, Becker went into a crowd once again to challenge Kenai. Becker picked off a throw-in, but bobbled the ball. Before Kenai could take possession, the Wasilla defense cleared the ball out of the box.

“She’ll come out with it, even if it’s bobbled,” Craig said of Becker. “She’ll come out with it in the end.”

Becker also got some extra help from her defense in the first half. Wasilla’s Maija Kellner-Rode used a header to knock the ball away on arguably Kenai’s best opportunity of the first 40 minutes.

After Wasilla spent much of the first 15 minutes of the match in Kenai’s defensive zone, Kenai worked the ball down to the other end of the field. With Becker a bit out of position, Casey Coupchiak took a shot at the far side of the net from the right side of the field. Thankfully for Wasilla, Kellner-Rode was there to knock the shot away.

Aryn Crane nearly scored early for WHS when she drove into the Kenai box, but Crane pushed a shot just wide of the left post.

Although the Warriors couldn’t crack the Kenai goal, Wasilla did keep a streak alive. The tie marked Wasilla’s sixth straight shutout. Teams have scored only three times against Wasilla and no squad has scored on the Warriors since Colony and Wasilla played to a 2-2 tie during Wasilla’s second match of the season.

Becker has played well, Craig said, and Wasilla’s defensive line is, “very, very strong,” but Craig is still looking for that final piece of the puzzle.

“It’s a hard piece because you wish it would come naturally,” Craig said. “But our last piece as far as being a complete team is finishing. We’ll have the ball in our attack half for 75 percent of the game, but our scores against competitive teams aren’t reflecting that.”

Contact Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.