Palmer, Colony girls play to soccer tie

PALMER — The Colony Knights entered Thursday’s match against rival Palmer thinking they needed a victory to jump the Moose in the Northern Lights Conference North Division standings. But as it turns out, Colony’s 1-1 tie against Palmer may be enough to keep the Knights ahead of the Moose in the standings, and the seeding for the upcoming NLC tournament.

“We’ll take it,” Colony head coach Lorie Miner said after the tie, assuming the scenario is correct and the tie does give Colony at least the No. 3 seed in the NLC Championships, which begins Thursday at Wasilla High.

It’s the second tie of the season between the two rivals. Colony and Palmer played to a 3-3 tie at CHS earlier in the year. Both teams have wins over Houston and losses to Wasilla. The ultimate tiebreaker could be Colony’s 4-4 tie with Grace Christian earlier this week. Palmer suffered a loss to Grace this season.

“We did really good against Grace,” Miner said.

Miner, who noted tremendous improvement in her squad, said the Knights have put an emphasis on putting the ball on the net.

“As long as we emphasize that to them and they’re focused on that, we have a better outcome,” Miner said.

Miner said the Knights set a goal of 15 shots on goal per half of play. Colony surpassed that mark during a pair of road wins on the Peninsula recently, and came close against Grace and Palmer.

Thursday, Colony fired 13 shots on the Moose net during the first half and nine during the second.

Rebecca Mackey scored from about 12 yards out early in the first half to give the Knights the 1-0 lead. Sahara Iverson recorded the assist.

The Moose netted a score midway through the second half to knot the match at 1. Kiana Till won a battle in a scramble in front of the Colony net, and knocked in a loose ball to tie the game at 1. The Till goal was set up by a Palmer corner kick from the right side.

Like Miner, Palmer head coach Harmony Chadwick has also seen great improvement in her team since the two rivals last met.

“Total improvement,” Chadwick said.

Till nearly gave the Moose the go-ahead goal late in the game. But Ripley Wakaliuk came up with arguably the play of the game. As Till rushed down the field, in a race with Wakaliuk, Colony goalie Peyton Shaw came out to challenge. Till managed to somehow get the ball past a sliding Shaw. As it looked like Till may have a free path to the net, Wakaliuk came in and booted the ball out of bounds.

Wasilla and Colony cap regular-season play Friday at 5 p.m. at Colony High.

The Colony Knights scored a 9-0 win over Palmer Thursday night. Kyle Bolam and Jake Forstner each scored a pair of goals for the Knights. Sean Haley earned the shutout, which included a key save late in the game for CHS. For more on the boys game, see frontiersman.com.