Knights forced to settle for fifth

JUNEAU — The soccer gods could not have dealt the Colony Knights a more difficult group of three teams to face during the state tournament.

In the opening round, Colony drew West Anchorage, the 2008 state runner-up. A 2-1 win over the Eagles moved the Knights into a semifinal match with Juneau-Douglas, a two-time state champion that’s never finished below third in an ASAA-sanctioned state soccer tourney.

A 1-0 overtime loss to the Crimson Bears on Friday left Colony in the third-place match pitted against South Anchorage, which won state titles in four of its first five years as a program and competed in the state championship match every year until this season.

Ultimately that pack of heavyweights knocked the second-seeded Knights down to fifth place in the 2010 tourney. South Anchorage scored a 3-1 win over Colony in the third-place match Saturday morning at Adair-Kennedy Field in Juneau.

“It was incredibly tough,” Colony head coach Jeremy Johnson said by phone on Saturday.

Senior captain Oliver Querin scored in the final minute of the third-place match to put the Knights on the scoreboard. Johnson said Querin’s goal came on the last touch of his high school career.

While it was difficult for the Knights to face the loss on Saturday, the heartbreaker came the night before.

Luc Rondeau knocked a ball of the crossbar into the Knight net during the 96th minute to give the Crimson Bears the 1-0 overtime win over the Knights during the semifinal round. Colony also had a ball bounce off the crossbar, a Logan Smith strike during the 70th minute. But Smith’s shot bounced back out into play.

“We each it a crossbar, ours went in and out, theirs went in,” Johnson said.

As good as Smith’s attempt was, Johnson said Jesse Rouse took a pass from James Meaney and ripped a shot onto the Juneau net.

And as good a save as the Juneau keeper made on Rouse’s attempt, the save — or saves — of the game came early in overtime when Colony keeper Jesse Krey made back-to-back-to-back stops.

Krey made consecutive stops on hard Juneau shots, and flipped a third up over the cross bar.

The Knights were without three key players during the loss to Juneau. Johnson said he only had one sub to work with for 96 minutes.

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