Knights play to win, draw against Chugiak

PALMER — The Colony Knights enjoyed a stellar defensive effort, but an inadvertent touch led to the chance for the Chugiak Mustangs to escape with a nonconference girls’ soccer tie.

After a bad bounce, and a deflection off the arm of a Colony player in the penalty box with about six minutes left in regulation, Chugiak drilled the ensuing penalty kick to force at 1-1 draw Thursday evening at Colony High School.

“It was an errant shot. The girl wasn’t expecting it,” Colony head coach Jeremy Johnson said of the deflection off his player.

Johnson said he felt his team was able to control play throughout.

“The score probably didn’t reflect the play,” Johnsons said.

Sophomore Bella Brown gave Colony a 1-0 lead during the 52nd minute, cashing in on a corner kick courtesy of junior Mykaela McMullen. Brown used a header to get a piece of the McMullen corner, and stayed with the play to get the Knights the advantage.

“It was a nice corner and Bella followed,” Johnson said.

On the other side, Johnson said he felt the Knights dominated defensively.

“Our defense shut everything down,” Johnson said. “We weren’t really giving them any shots.”

Colony also dominated the Mustangs in a 2-0 boys’ win. The Knights didn’t allow a shot, but Johnson said Colony missed a handful of quality opportunities on the offensive side.

Kyle Dearborn and Noah Krozel scored for Colony.

“We missed a ton of opportunities. Their goalie made some really good saves, but we missed some easy chances.”

Dearborn gave Colony the 1-0 lead 10 minutes in, slamming home a rebound created by a Cade Johnstone shot. The Chugiak goalkeeper gave up a long rebound, and Dearborn was in perfect position to capitilize.

During the 60th minute, Krozel sent a through ball to Dearborn, who was taken down in the box. Krozel converted the penalty kick to give the Knights the 2-0 lead.

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