Knights win boys state soccer title

ANCHORAGE — Simply said, Chaz Stephens was just beat up.

Stephens, a Colony senior and leader on the defensive end, had been battling a groin injury for the last two weeks. It was serious enough to keep him out of the Northern Lights Conference title game last week, and keep his status unknown for the state tournament. And to add to that, sometime during the state championship game Saturday, Stephens hit the turf hard enough to pop his shoulder out of joint.

But when his team needed him most, Stephens, with both his shoulder and thigh wrapped tight with tape, put his team on his shoulders. The senior used a long throw-in to set up senior captain Ben Atkinson’s game-winning goal with 2 minutes and 30 seconds left in sudden-death, and Colony scored a 3-2 extra-time win over Dimond during the ASAA/First National Bank State Soccer Championships boys title game Saturday at Anchorage Football Stadium.

Atkinson used a header to redirect the Stephens throw-in to help Colony win its second boys soccer title, and first since 2000. Stephens used another throw-in to set up an Arty Fonov in the game’s first overtime. Chris Olsen scored a regulation goal for the Knights, and Sean Haley earned the win in the Colony net.

Stephens, with a bad shoulder and noticeable limp, needed the help of Fonov just to get to midfield to receive his player of the game certificate. But as he launched the throw-in deep into the box during sudden-death and ran down the field with Atkinson celebrating the game-winner, nobody on the field would have known Stephens was injured.

“When I threw that last ball to Ben and he got that goal, even though I was hurting, I was overcome with joy,” said Stephens, who is known for his power on his throws. “Even though I was hurting, I just ran through it. I knew we’d won the state championship.”

Already battling the groin injury, Stephens said it was contact with a Dimond player that led to another injury.

“I tackled one of the kids down in the corner, and hit the ground and my shoulder popped out. I had them tape it up,” Stephens said.

Stephens said the last thing on his mind was pain when he took the ball on the right side of the field and prepared for his throw.

“It’s the state championship game and I won’t quit. I’ll do whatever I can for my team,” Stephens said.

Atkinson was in awe of his teammate’s work through the pain.

“He kept working through. He’s had the groin injury for the past two weeks, and we can always count on him to push through the pain and huck that cannon,” Atkinson said.

Atkinson, anchored within a sea of gold Dimond jerseys before the throw, beat two Lynx players into the air, made contact with the ball, and watched hit the back of the net before running down the field to be mobbed by teammates.

“My last goal of high school, and it was for a state championship, I couldn’t ask for anything more,” Atkinson said.

Jeremy Johnson, who led Colony to its second state title in his 20 years as the program’s head coach, commended his two senior leaders for teaming up on the game-winning goal.

“I knew Chaz was really beat up. I looked at him and said, hey can you do one more throw? He said yep,” Johnson said. “Ben, he’s been our leader the whole year, and he stepped up with the beautiful header.”

Atkinson’s goal capped a roller-coaster match that took about 103 minutes to decide. The teams were tied at 1 at the end of 80 minutes of regulation, and each team scored a goal during 20 minutes of overtime. The Knights also bounced back from Dimond’s stunning first goal. Dimond’s Matt Cerveny brought the ball up the right side of the field and tucked a shot inside the near-side post during the first minute of play to give the Lynx an early 1-0 lead. Atkinson said the early Dimond goal didn’t stun the Knights as much as it could have.

“Surprisingly it wasn’t as bad. We really didn’t put our heads down,” Atkinson said. “We knew it was real, and we needed to get going.”

Johnson said the Knights stayed focused on finding a way to get that first goal.

“Obviously we got down early in the first 30 seconds of the match. We talked at half, we needed to find a way to get that first goal to tie it up,” Johnson said.

Early in the second, Olsen found a way, and the back of the net for the Knights. Olsen, who scored Colony’s lone goal in a 1-0 semifinal win over Homer Friday, knocked a loose ball into the left side of the net during the 42nd minute to tie the game at 1.

Midway through the second 10-minute overtime period, Stephens earned the first of his two assists with long throw-ins. Stephens sent a ball deep into the box, and Fonov used a header to knock the ball in to give the Knights the 2-1 lead.

Colony’s advantage would be short-lived. With two minutes left in the second overtime, Dimond’s Micah Rickard ripped a shot from the right side of the field into the upper corner of the far side of the net to force sudden death.

Throughout 20 minutes of overtime and sudden-death, Johnson said the Knights preached resiliency.

“Going into overtime we looked over at their huddle. They were huddled up tight and talking serious. Our guys were kind of lounging around and smiling. We figured they were talking about the fact they gave up a lead, (talking about) how they should have already won it, talking about how they thought they had it in the bag and gave it away,” Johnson said. “I said, well at the beginning of the season if I asked every one of you if you wanted to be in a 1-1 game with Dimond in overtime at state, you would have taken it. I said, well then, let’s go out and win it. Overtime’s winning time. We did. We went out and got that nice goal from Arty. And then unfortunately they had that beautiful shot by that kid to tie it up. But we had the same attitude going into sudden-death. We said, hey, let’s go out and win it. We score the first goal and it’s over.”

Johnson praised his players for their resilience, his goalie, Haley, in particular.

“He was mad about that first goal. I said, hey, they went through 10 other players before they got to you,” Johnson said.

Haley said he remained focused after allowing the early goal.

“It was all about staying positive,” Haley said. “It’s like basketball players. If a shot’s missed, you take another shot.”

Dimond had a handful of quality shots for Haley, and the senior came up big for the Knights.

“He came through with two really huge saves, one in regulation and one in overtime,” Johnson said.

Arguably Haley’s biggest save came in the game’s 86th minute. Trask Shamburg ripped a shot from point-blank range high on net. Haley put up both hands and knocked the ball into the air, and caught it to prevent the rebound.

Overall, Johnson was thrilled with everyone wearing the Colony white and green.

“You can’t take anything away from any one of them. Every kid on the bench, supporting everyone who got into the game, whether they got to play 10 minutes in the game, or they played the entire 104 minutes,” Johnson said. “There’s not a better feeling in the world.”