Maiden victory

ANCHORAGE — Aerial Seltenreich’s airborne exploits put an exclamation point on Wasilla’s first win over Grace Christian in at least five years Thursday at Anchorage Football Stadium.

Seltenreich, a junior forward, leaped high into the air to head home senior co-captain Randi Smith’s in-swinging corner kick at the 67-minute mark to put Wasilla up 2-0 and ice a solid effort that saw Wasilla control the run of play from the get-go.

“The girls were ready to be here and ready to play,” Wasilla coach Katie Broeder said following the win, her first victory over Grace since coming to Wasilla five years ago.

The win moved the Warriors to 1-0 in the Northern Lights Conference and 1-1 overall.

“We’ve tied them, but that’s the first time we’ve ever beaten them,” Broeder said.

Wasilla didn’t just beat Grace, they dominated the Grizzlies on both ends of the pitch. Perhaps the Warriors’ only weak spot on a chilly afternoon was the team’s inability to convert on their myriad scoring opportunities.

“We had a hard time finishing,” Broeder said.

Wasilla took control of the game immediately, getting good chances from freshman Kendra Miner, sophomore Rachel Kennedy and freshman Ashlynn Frizzelle in the first five minutes of the game to keep Grace firmly on their heels.

The Warriors finally broke through at the 12-minute mark when Frizzelle sprinted past the Grace keeper and found herself all alone, easily sliding the ball into the net for her second goal in two games this season.

Wasilla’s defense made the goal stand up for the rest of the half, frustrating the Grace forwards by forcing the action up the field and making things easy for junior goalie Sammy Becker.

Becker faced just one tough shot in the half, a point-blank rocket by Grace co-captain Julie Ann Loughlin that she swallowed up cleanly for the game’s best save.

Most of Grace’s shots came from well outside of 20 yards away from the goal, and Broeder credited her defensive players for making sure Grace scoring attempts were of the desperation variety.

“They had one corner kick all game,” she said. “That shows how good my defense was at pushing the ball out all game.”

Led by a rock-solid effort by junior Maija Kellner-Rode, Wasilla’s primary defenders — freshman Becca Newcomb, junior co-captain Tabor Tingstad and sophomore Krizia Verplancke — helped push the ball to the Wasilla midfield, where Smith was more often than not able to move things forward to Wasilla’s numerous play making forwards.

“We played as a team more, we didn’t have that gap between our offense and defense,” Broeder said.

Wasilla had a barrage of scoring chances leading up to the second goal, including several by Miner, who alternated with Seltenreich to give Wasilla a formidable force on the left side. Combined with Kennedy on the right, the Wasilla forwards were able to apply continuous pressure to the Grace back line for the duration of the contest.

While Broeder said she would have liked to have seen her squad find the back of the net a couple more times, she had no complaints with her team’s effort, which came on the heels of the team’s season-opening 5-4 loss to Colony last week.

“We’ve had four games canceled on us already,” she said. “We were ready to play.”

Broeder said that despite having so many early-season contests called off due to poor weather, she’s had no trouble keeping her energetic, close-knit team together as they’ve waited to get on the field.

“I haven’t had any problem keeping them motivated to come to practice,” she said.

And the Wasilla coach said she’s believes that the early-season enthusiasm pays off in late-season victories.

“I just love our group of girls this year.”

Wasilla hosts NLC rival Skyview today at 3 p.m. at Veterans Memorial Field.

Contact Matt Tunseth at 352-2265 or matt.tunseth@frontiersman.com

WASILLA 2, GRACE CHRISTIAN 0

Thursday, Anchorage Football Stadium

Wasilla (2) — Frizzelle (12), Seltenreich (67).

Yellow cards — Wasilla 1, Grace 1.