Soldotna beats Wasilla for league’s top honor

KENAI — Her team heartbroken, exhausted and defeated Saturday afternoon, Wasilla girls coach Amber Craig could still find reasons for optimism.

“One of our big team goals was to get the region banner, but also to make an impact on the state,” Craig said after her team fell 3-1 in the championship game of the Northern Lights Conference tournament at the Kenai Sports Complex.

Despite the loss, Wasilla will still travel to Juneau for next week’s state tournament, where she said the Warriors still have a chance to prove themselves.

“We don’t want to go all the way to Juneau and go two-and-out,” she said.

Wasilla advanced to state with a 2-1 win over host Kenai Central on Friday behind a first-minute goal by Vanni and the second-half game-winner from Ashlyn Frizzelle in the 68th minute.

The Warriors, who beat Soldotna 3-0 during the regular season, simply ran up against a more fired-up Soldotna team that came out hot in front of a sizable Twin Cities crowd on Saturday.

“Our intensity was the difference,” said Soldotna coach Mike Tovoli.

The Warriors also may have run out of gas after playing their seventh game in nine days.

The Stars, who entered the tournament as the No. 1 seed from the South division, opened the scoring early when Shana Powell’s direct free kick from just outside the box found the net just inside the far post — a shocking strike that Craig said set the tone for the game.

“They took advantage of a good direct kick,” she said. “And then they did a great job of making the most of that opportunity.”

Soldotna pushed its lead to 2-0 when Kaili Sholin hammered home a penalty kick in the 21st minute.

The Warriors briefly made things interesting at the end of the half after Nicole Vanni’s clinical finish on a penalty try cut the lead to 2-1.

But that would be as close as Wasilla would get to an NLC championship banner this season, as SoHi’s Sydney Goggia finished off an impressive day for the Stars with a header in the 74th minute.

Following the final whistle, Soldotna players were mobbed by family, friends and fans in celebration of their underdog win.

“I’m just so excited,” said Soldotna’s Emily Rohloff. “We dug deep.”

Despite the disappointing loss, Craig said she strongly believes Wasilla has what it takes to come on strong at the state tournament.

“We know what these girls are capable of,” she said.

Girls 3rd place

Colony 3,

Kenai Central 1

The Colony girls used a dominant second half Saturday to punch their ticket to Juneau with a 3-1 win over Kenai in the third-place game of the Northern Lights Conference tournament at the Kenai Sports Complex.

The Knights opened the scoring with a strike from captain Jessica Parker in the 15th minute, a goal that was canceled out almost immediately when Kenai’s Jenna Calhoun found the net a minute later to tie the score.

That’s how the game stayed until the 62nd minute, when Ali Baker knocked in a header off a Jamie Kredit cross for the game-winner.

Kredit added the insurance goal ten minutes later to ice the game.