NLC boys soccer: Kards kick WHS out of tourney

SOLDOTNA — Kenai coach David Landry wouldn’t discuss the details of his team’s shootout against Wasilla.

It wasn’t because he didn’t want to. Rather, he couldn’t.

“It’s been a couple years since I’ve watched a penalty kick,” Landry said. “I just can’t do it. My hair’s turning whiter than it is.”

While Landry was policing the bench area, cleaning up water bottles and anything else he could get his hands on, the Kardinals were advancing to the semifinals of the Northern Lights Conference tournament at Soldotna High School on Thursday.

The wild finish came after a wild ending to regular time, which saw Wasilla’s Jimmy Sliwa convert on the penalty kick in stoppage time. After Sliwa’s equalizer, second-seeded Kenai and third-seeded Wasilla battled through 30 minutes of overtime before the Kardinals earned a 4-2 penalty-shootout win in eliminating the defending NLC tournament champs with an exhilarating 3-2 victory.

“It feels real good,” said senior Cory Toombs, who netted the clinching penalty shot. “They pretty much kicked our butts all three years and to get revenge is pretty good.”

Not only had the Kardinals (6-2-2) gone more than 290 minutes over the past three seasons without finding the net against Wasilla until they struck in the 51st minute Thursday, but Kenai seniors were 0-5 in their careers when facing the Warriors, including a 3-0 defeat in last year’s NLC title game.

Having beaten Colony in a shootout in last season’s semifinals before being eliminated from state by Soldotna in the same situation, Landry knew it could boil down to it again.

Kenai sophomore AJ Ewing converted on the Kardinals’ initial opportunity, sending the ball down the middle off Wasilla keeper Eli Tingstad before it hit the back of the net.

Wasilla’s Paul Sliwa evened the score before senior Devon Boyle rifled the ball directly over Tingstad and into the upper netting for a 2-1 edge.

But Aaron Sharrow, whose throw-in in the waning moments of stoppage time helped set up Jimmy Sliwa’s game-tying goal, booted his try over the net.

Following successful shots by Kenai senior McKenan Steinbeck and Jimmy Sliwa that made it 3-2 in favor of the Kardinals, Toombs delivered the clincher when he easily drove the ball into the back left corner of the net, setting off a wild celebration near midfield.

“It’s tough to go to overtime and then golden goal and then to have your season end in a shootout,” said Warriors coach Blake Livingston. “It’s definitely not what you’re hoping for.”

Colony 3, Nikiski 2

James Meaney tallied two goals, including the eventual game-winner, and an assist in guiding the top-seeded Knights within one win of a state tournament berth after missing out on the big dance for the first time ever last season.

“I feel like we’ve got a good, quality side. I feel like we are one of the top three teams and we should be able to make it,” said Colony coach Jeremy Johnson. “But anything can happen in a tournament like this. There’s lots of quality teams. So, we’ve got to make sure we try and win tomorrow and guarantee we’ve got that spot at state and then think about trying to win the region and getting that higher seed.”

After Meaney opened the scoring off an assist from Tim Jaronik, Nikiski senior Josh Vance drove home a cross from Beau Calderwood, knotting the game at one.

But Colony didn’t go 8-0-1in the regular season for nothing.

Meaney assisted Weston Patrick in staking the Knights to a one-goal lead entering halftime.

Nikiski briefly tied the game in the second half, but Meaney got the game-winner eight minutes later off an assist from Oliver Querin and the Knights made the lead stand up the rest of the way.

Soldotna 4, Palmer 1

Sophomores Blaine Carver and Jeff Mullen each netted a pair of goals in leading the top-seeded and undefeated Stars past the fourth-seeded Moose and into a semifinal matchup with Homer.

Palmer senior Zach Zegydryn netted the Moose’s only goal when he converted a direct kick in the 56th minute.

Also Thursday, Homer upset Grace Christian 2-1 to advance to the semifinals against SoHi.

Matt Carroll can be reached at matthew.carroll@

peninsulaclarion.com