Hawks girls net first win

HOUSTON — Scoring an early-season win is big for any team. But it’s even more significant for a Houston Hawks squad eager to build a competitive program.

Houston, which scored its lone win last year against a junior varsity squad, earned a 2-0 victory over the Nikiski Bulldogs Friday at Houston High School.

“It is a big deal,” Houston head coach Huey Farrell said after the match. “I think it’s a big confidence thing for them. As a coach, I have confidence in them. But if you don’t have that win, you don’t know how much confidence they have. They could start to doubt themselves.”

Cassie Kapuniai and Megan Wilbur both scored first-half goals to help Houston improve to 1-2-0 overall. Kauniai knocked in a rebound during the 15th minute to give Houston the 1-0 lead. About 15 minutes later, Wilbur scored to add to Houston’s advantage.

Senior Khristin Nida notched the shutout in the Houston goal.

“We’ve improved in every game, and I don’t expect that to change,” Farrell said.

Houston opened the season with a 6-1 loss to Palmer. Farrell said the Hawks played well at times against Palmer, but there was about a 15-minute stretch where the Hawks fell flat.

Earlier this week, Colony edged Houston 2-0. Despite the loss, Farrell said he felt good about the match against the Knights.

“You hate to lose, but against a good team like Colony, that’s a big improvement for us,” Farrell said.

Overall, things are looking promising for the Houston girls program, the head coach said.

“We’re playing well right now. We’re young, but we’re fast,” Farrell said.

The Hawks have 22 players on the roster, the most during Farrell’s three years as the Hawks head coach.

“I’m happy with it. We can have two full teams going against each other,” he said. “We’re growing every year. I’m hoping to get up to 30 so we can have a (junior varsity team).”

The Hawks are also benefiting from the school’s new artificial turf field, which was installed prior to the start of the 2013-14 school year.

“Last year we never practiced or played on our field. Even when it melted off, there were holes and it was muddy,” Farrell said. “We couldn’t prepare it fast enough to play, so we had to move all our games to Colony. They had turf. This year it melted off three weeks ago.”

Farrell’s roster features only three seniors. But the head coach is excited about the young talent on his team.

In particular, Farrell noted freshman center midfielder Aspen Ruth.

“In my opinion. I haven’t seen a player better than her. I’ve been doing this three years,” Farrell said of his tenure with the Hawks.

Farrell also listed freshman center forward Megan Adair among the players to watch.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at

sports@frontiersman.com.