Second-half surge pushes Wasilla girls past Colony

PALMER — Knowing his team was Colony’s third opponent over a tough four-day stretch, Wasilla girls’ soccer head coach Patrick O’Neill crafted a strategy on a windy day at Colony High School.

O’Neill and the Warriors opted to play into the wind during the first half, with a hope that the Warriors’ fresher legs — Wasilla had not played a game in nearly a week — would prevail in the second half.

It worked.

Wasilla scored three unanswered goals in the second half, and posted a 5-2 Northern Lights Conference victory over the Knights Monday at Colony High.

“We decided to go into the wind and try to get settled into our game. We figured we’d weather the storm. They played Friday and Saturday, and we hadn’t played a game since last Tuesday,” O’Neill said after the win. “We thought maybe in the second half, with our speed, maybe we could wear them down.”

Wasilla used its speed up front to send balls through the middle and create opportunties on the Colony net.

“They out-ran us, put the ball through and they had the speed,” Colony head coach Lorie Miner said. “We didn’t make the adjustment for that.”

With the first of Wasilla’s three second-half goals, Jodie Richey scored to snap the 2-2 tie. Four minutes later, Abby Crawford scored for the Warriors. Ally Hull tacked on another goal for the Warriors.

“Once the momentum changed after (our) third goal, we had a bit more pep in our step,” O’Neill said.

The rivals hit the halftime intermission locked in a 2-2 tie. Crawford gave the Warriors the early lead, scoring the first of her two goals in the game during the seventh minute. Later in the half, Natalie Nordland scored for Colony to tie the game at 1.

Alia Donley gave Wasilla a 2-1 lead. But once again, Colony was able to net a first-half equalizer. Peyton Johnstone scored her 17th goal of the young season to tie the score at 2. O’Neill said being aware of Johnstone was a focal point of the game plan.

“Peyton’s so dangerous. We try to stay in front of her, try not to let her shoot, but she’s going to get her shots,” O’Neill said.

Wasilla improved to 3-0 in NLC play with the win. Colony dropped to 2-2-1. The Knights capped a brutal stretch that included games against NLC rivals Kenai, Soldotna and Wasilla within a four-day stretch. Colony’s three opponents during that span are the three NLC teams that advanced to the state tournament last year.

Colony boys 1, Wasilla 0

Alex Valdez scored late to give the Knights a 1-0 win over Wasilla Monday at Colony High School.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.