HAWKS MAKE HISTORY: Houston girls advance to region tournament for first time

PALMER — It was a tie, but enough to help the Houston Hawks girls’ soccer program make school history.

Houston used a scoreless tie against Palmer Thursday night at Palmer High School to advance to the Northern Lights Conference Championships tournament for the first time ever.

Senior standout Aspen Ruth said she wasn’t sure if it would ever happen in her high school career.

“I always hoped for it,” Ruth said after the match. “It’s a good feeling to achieve it.”

During Ruth’s four-year career with the varsity squad, the Hawks have enjoyed a complete turnaround. The Hawks earned their first win over a Valley opponent last year, beating Palmer, and were within reach of a spot in the region tournament. This year, Houston scored wins over NLC opponents Palmer, Homer, Seward and Nikiski.

Ruth credited Houston head coach Steve Day.

“Steve. He knows the game very well. He helped us with a lot of technique, skills. We learned that and put it to work,” Ruth said of Day, who is in his third year as head coach.

Day was nearly choked-up talking about his team’s accomplishments after the match, calling it among the highlights of his 24 years coaching soccer.

“It’s awesome,” Day said. “To have a bunch of kids reach that kind of goal, brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.”

Houston scored a 2-0 win over Palmer early in the season. Both teams entered Thursday’s match battling for the No. 4 seed, and final spot from the NLC North in the upcoming NLC Championships. The first Palmer-Houston match of the year didn’t count in the final division standings, but Thursday’s did. After the teams played to a tie, a tiebreaker was needed to decide who would finish fourth and who would finish fifth in the division. Houston’s April win over the Moose was the tiebreaker used. Palmer dropped to fifth in the division, and the NLC tourney only includes the top four teams from the North and top four from the South.

Knowing the Hawks had that early win that could be used as a tiebreaker didn’t impact Houston’s pregame strategy, Day said.

“Exactly the same,” Day said of the game plan. “We knew they were going to come out really hard.”

Houston and Palmer also met last year during the final weekend of the regular season with a spot in regions on the line. Palmer got a late goal off a corner kick set up by then-sophomore Kiley Fish, and the Moose advanced with a 3-2 win.

“I kept having flashbacks of that corner kick last year,” Day said Thursday.

And there was reason. Palmer had chances off corner kicks late. Palmer had several key chances in general.

Just more than 50 minutes into action, Palmer was awarded a free kick just outside of the box. Moose senior Tiana Lee sent a hard strike just over the reach of a wall of Hawks, but the ball bounced off the crossbar. Palmer senior Haley Hanson also had solid opportunities. On at least two occasions, Hanson was thwarted by Ruth. With about 10 minutes left, Hanson had a hard strike from the right side of the box, but Ruth blocked the shot with her shin. About six minutes later, Hanson sent a cross from the right, but Ruth used a header to knock the ball out of play.

“She’s a freak of nature,” Day said of Ruth. “That girl, she’s going to do so well next year in college. (She’s a) tough, smart, great player.”

Day lauded his entire team for not breaking as Palmer pushed with a number of quality chances late.

“There’s no quit in any of them,” Day said.

Now the Hawks can look forward to regions, which start Thursday at Colony High School.

“I’m so excited,” Ruth said. “This has been a goal since freshman year. To achieve it senior year, it’s good to go out with a bang.”

Seniors lead Moose to win

Palmer senior Johnnie Burton helped his classmates earn a win on the final regular season match on their home field.

Burton celebrated senior night with a pair of goals during a 3-2 win over Houston Thursday at Palmer High School.

Reed Godden also scored for Palmer.

Knights sweep Moose

The Colony Knights celebrated senior night with a pair of wins over rival Palmer.

Gabby Wakaliuk scored twice to lead Colony to a 3-1 girls’ win over Palmer. Sahara Iverson added a goal.

In boys’ action, Kyle Dearborn netted a hat trick in a 7-0 win over the Moose. Noah Krozel, Cade Johnstone, Gio Ramos and Dayton Rabellizsa also scored.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.