First-half flurry leads Colony girls over Stars

KENAI — It may not have been the way they wanted to finish, but the Soldotna girls soccer team is still going to the state tournament after losing to Colony 2-1 in the championship game of the Northern Lights Conference Championships Saturday at the Kenai Soccer Complex.

Colony will head into state as the top seed from the Northern Lights Conference, Soldotna will be second and Grace Christian will be third after defeating Kenai Central 1-0 in the third-place game.

For Soldotna, it marks the fourth consecutive year of qualifying for the state tournament, but the first year of doing so without winning the region title.

“It’s an achievement, so we kept that streak alive, but it’s frustrating,” said SoHi coach Jimmy Love. “Going to state is cool, but we’re going to state as the second-place team. You want to win out your region, especially if it’s Colony or Kenai or one of those other teams.”

Colony will be returning to the state meet after missing out last year.

“It’s a very big deal. We’ve been working really hard for this,” said Colony head coach Lorie Miner.

It all went wrong for the Stars early, as Colony’s Ali Baker successfully converted on a cross from a teammate in the 15th minute that slipped by SoHi goalkeeper Katelynn Kerkvliet. In the 34th minute, Peyton Johnstone nailed a second goal into the net that caught Kerkvliet looking again and really put the Stars on their heels.

“We weren’t even here. They don’t play with their backs to the wall, because they’re just not used to it,” Love said. “So when the pressure hit them, they didn’t finish. It should’ve been 5-2 at the half, but when it comes to finishing, that wins games. They had their opportunities.”

Trailing 2-0 at halftime, the Stars knew they had a chance to rally because of the strong wind that was sweeping across the field. In the first half, SoHi was playing into the wind, but received the benefit of playing with the wind in the second half.

“Every game we won thus far has been in the second half, so we know we’re capable of it, plus today the wind was stronger today then the last two days, so we knew that was going to be an advantage as well,” Love said. “We definitely had them on that side of the field. But you don’t win games by controlling possession, which we had, but we still lost.”

It was only seven minutes into the second half when Kylee Wolfe was able to find Olivia Conradi in front of the Colony goalie with space to work with. Conradi sent home the goal that would put the Stars back in it.

In the ensuing minutes, SoHi was able to find opportunities, but none were completed. SoHi recorded nine shots on goal in the second half, compared to just one for Colony, and took five corner kicks while Colony had one.

“They needed to turn around and get another one right away, and they kind of backpedalled and were comfortable for a couple minutes instead of pressing forward,” Love said. “When we pressed, they made mistakes, but we kind of took our foot of the gas and let them bring the ball to us.”

Miner said her team’s plan was to not get defensive and the outlast SoHi for the final 30 minutes.

“The wind played a little bit of a factor,” she said. “They had it in the second half, but we stayed focused and determined to come out with a win on this one.”