Prep girls soccer: Moose grab key victory

May 18, 2007

By MATT TUNSETH/ Frontiersman

WASILLA - Palmer kept its hopes of a Northern Lights Conference north division title alive Thursday with a 1-0 defeat of the Colony Knights at Colony.

Tess Anderson's goal in the 51st minute broke a scoreless tie to finish off the regular season for the Moose with a 2-1-1 record in division play.

The goal was bittersweet for Anderson, as she had to be carried off late in the game with an apparent knee injury.

&#8220Hopefully she's okay,” Palmer coach Brian Fish said following the game.

The loss of Anderson would be a big blow for the Moose. She's the Valley's leading female goal-scorer with nine scores on the season.

Anderson's goal came with the teams locked in an often-physical struggle, with players hitting the ground with regularity on the wet, sloppy Colony field.

Colony had plenty of chances, including a Kara Larson goal in the first half that was disallowed by an offsides call.

&#8220It was another good game,” Fish said. &#8220Both teams had a lot of chances, we were just able to get one and have it hold up.”

Following the Palmer goal, Colony began to play with an air of desperation that seemed to put the Knights off their game.

&#8220We started reaching,” Colony coach Lorie Miner said.

Miner said it was part of Colony's strategy to try and get through balls forward from the midfield, but as the game wore on the Knights began pressing the issue too much to be effective.

&#8220We started putting long balls that weren't within our reach,” she said.

Sending long passes toward the Palmer defense played right into the hands of the Moose, who got steady play from a young defensive rotation that included four sophomores - Rebecca Kloster, Julie Mangelsdorf, Krysta Theisen and Meghan Mare - along with freshman Shea Riggs and senior Alena Voigt.

&#8220It's taken them the whole year, but they're finally starting to get together back there,” Fish said.

Colony did get a couple golden opportunities late in the game, most notably when a ball slipped through the Palmer defense and onto the toe of Tara Murray, who found herself wide open in front of Palmer goalie Chelsea Beetch.

Murray's left-footed shot, however, sailed high - right where Beetch was playing her - and the Palmer goalie made the sure-handed catch to preserve the clean sheet.

The Palmer win set up a confusing playoff scenario that could see either Palmer, Wasilla (2-0-1) or Colony (2-1-0) end up in the division's top spot.

As it stands, the Knights and Warriors have one game left against each other on Saturday at Wasilla. If the Warriors win, they'll be top seed and will face the fourth-seeded team from the south division in next week's conference tournament. Colony would drop to third and Palmer would finish in second.

If Colony wins, they'll be the north's top seed, Wasilla will finish second and the Moose will wind up in third.

But if Colony and Wasilla tie, the teams would all be 2-1-1, meaning the top three places would be decided by tiebreakers - which could possibly include a coin flip.

Colony head coach Lorie Miner would prefer not to leave anything to chance. Minutes after her team's setback against Palmer, the Colony coach said everything comes down to Saturday's game - meaning the Knights won't spend much time dwelling on Thursday's loss.

&#8220The focus for Wasilla starts now,” she said.

Colony 9, Houston 0

Tara Murray and Kara Larson each notched hat tricks to lead Colony to a 9-0 win over Houston at Houston High School on Tuesday. Katelyn Payne earned the shutout.

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