Moose booters too much for Bulldogs

NIKISKI— Freshman Tiana Lee scored twice and senior Katarina Godden got the shutout in goal for the Palmer girls.

The win improves Palmer to a 4-7-1 season record, while Nikiski continues its winless season at 0-3-1.

Palmer coach Harmony Chadwick said a rearrangement of positions on the field helped her squad maintain effective possession of the ball, as Nikiski struggled to get the ball out of its third.

“We actually switched up our formation the other day against Grace, and it worked really well,” Chadwick said. “They like it, it’s really working.”

Chadwick said she switched to a 4-4-2 formation, with two forwards up front. On Friday, the Moose dominated play on the field by outshooting the Bulldogs 22-1 on goal, with multiple shots coming from Lee, Carly Venzke and Kiana Till.

“We talked a lot about keeping our passing game,” Chadwick said. “We were doing a pretty good job of winning the 50-50 balls in the first half and we wanted to continue that.”

Palmer also had the advantage in corner kicks by 7-0. It sure made for a busy day for Nikiski goaltender Rachel Thompson.

“She’s always going to be very strong back there, we just need to give her some support and help from the backline,” said Nikiski coach Mandy Adair. “They’re doing a great job listening and being great teammates to each other.”

It wasn’t until the 28th minute that Palmer found a way past Thompson, but Elliot Perkins scored first with a jumbled play that saw the ball glance off the right goal post, past Thompson and into the waiting clutches of Perkins, who nimbly guided the ball into the net for a 1-0 lead.

Just two minutes later, Till took a chance from about 20 yards out with an assist from Ashley Murray and put the ball into the left corner for Palmer’s second goal.

At halftime, Palmer had a two-goal lead, a comfortable margin for the Moose, but certainly not one to sit on.

Lee’s two tallies came in a five-minute span in the second half. She put the ball up high into the air in the 60th minute to score, then added a second goal in the 65th minute with an impressive sequence of dribbling down the center lane and launching the ball into the left corner to extend Palmer’s lead to 4-0.

Warrior girls top Juneau

WASILLA — Alexa Starr scored a pair of goals to lead Wasilla to a 2-1 nonconference win over Juneau-Douglas Friday at Wasilla High School’s Veterans Memorial Field.

Starr sent a rocket into the back of the net six minutes into play to give the Warriors (8-1) the early 1-0 lead.

Starr capitalized on a give-and-go courtesy of Ally Hull in the 45th minute to give the Warriors the two-goal lead.

Victoria Runyon earned the win in the Warrior goal.

Moose girls shut out Bulldogs

NIKISKI — Playing under the hot sun at Nikiski High School, Palmer scored a 4-0 girls soccer win over Nikiski Friday.

Elliot Perkins and Kiana Till each collected a pair of goals in the match. Kat Godden earned the shutout in the Moose goal.

Palmer girls drop close one

ANCHORAGE — Grace Christian survived a solid team effort from the Palmer Moose, and posted a 3-2 Northern Lights Conference win over the Moose girls Wednesday at Kincaid Park in Anchorage.

Elliot Perkins scored Palmer’s first goal of the match. Carly Venzke added a goal to knot the score at 2 just before the intermission.

Grace found the back of the net for the game-winner 20 minutes into the second half.

Soldotna girls 8, Houston 0

SOLDOTNA – The host Stars moved to 4-0 overall and in conference with a win over the Hawks on Friday.

Soldotna coach Jimmy Love said his starters got to play half the game, getting rest for games Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

“The goal going into this was to get the team jelling,” Love said. “I would have liked to see the starters play a good portion of the first half, but it was 60-plus degrees with little wind, so I subbed more in the first half than I wanted to.”

Alyssa Wolfe started the scoring three minutes in on an assist from Kylee Wolfe. Just three minutes later, Olivia Conradi gave SoHi a two-goal lead.

Taryn McCubbins scored in the 13th minute, while Lena Strothmann, on an assist from Makenna Rosin, scored with one minute left in the half.