Soldotna striker burns Palmer boys

PALMER — It’s hard for Kevin Dearborn and the Palmer Moose to forget about the last time Blaine Carver and the Soldotna Stars made a trip to the Mat-Su Valley.

During a visit earlier this season, Carver scored three times in a 4-0 win over Palmer to mark his first of consecutive hat tricks against Valley foes.

So to try to keep Carver from killing the Moose once again, Dearborn made a few changes in the lineup, most notably moving speedy forward Brennan Bohman to the back line.

But despite the switch and a valiant effort by the Moose in their defensive third, Carver still managed to hurt Palmer.

The junior striker posted a pair of goals to lead the top-seeded Stars to a 3-0 win over the Moose during the first round of the Northern Lights Conference Championships at Palmer High School on Thursday.

“It’s hard to contain that guy,” Dearborn said of Carver, who has now posted nine goals in four games against Valley teams. “Even if you have people all over him, it’s hard to contain him. He’s a great player.”

Bohman — who has become more accustomed to move the ball toward the opponent’s net rather than keeping it away from his own during his Palmer career — was one of those guys all over Carver. Dearborn said Bohman’s speed combined with an injury to Ben Ballard, one of the team’s better defenders, led to the lineup switch.

“Ben and Brennan are the only ones that can stick with that guy,” Dearborn said. “It’s an easy choice for me to stick Brennan back there. I thought Brennan did real well. It’s hard to contain that guy for 80 minutes.”

Palmer managed to keep Carver from reaching the back of the net for much of the middle portion of the match, but the SoHi junior scored during the first 10 and the final 10 minutes of regulation to help Soldotna advance to the semifinals and eliminate Palmer from the tournament.

Carver took advantage of a brief goalie switch to score his first goal during the ninth minute.

Just before Carver put SoHi on the scoreboard, Palmer starter John Church had to leave the net because of a problem with a knee brace. Palmer was forced to throw in reserve Brandon Wolsterman — who has missed time due to injury — in the mix, and before Wolsterman could get comfortable in net, Carver was knocking a shot in.

“It’s good to take advantage of an opportunity,” Soldotna head coach Jeff Siemers said. “It helps psychologically too. You see a change in goal and it gives you a little extra kick to maybe put it away.”

Palmer kept it at a one-goal game until the 74th minute, when Carver took control of his own rebound and put a shot high into the near side of the net. Dearborn said he was pleased with the play of his team between those two points in the match.

“Overall, I thought my boys played well,” Dearborn said. “At the end, we were tired. Having a one-goal difference after the first 10 minutes, we kept ourselves in the game for the majority of the time. I thought we did well on the field. Soldotna’s a great team for sure.”

Jeff Mullen added a goal right before the final whistle sounded to round out the Soldotna scoring.

Palmer had quality chances on net, but couldn’t prevent Soldotna senior Daniel Geller from posting his second shutout of the year against Palmer.

PHS junior Zach Zegzdryn consistently fed the ball to seniors Philip Jansen and Steven Williams, and junior Dunedin Strickland. Hard charges to the net by Jansen and Strickland challenged Geller, but the Moose were unable to reach the back of the Soldotna net.

While host Palmer is now forced to watch the remainder of the tourney, Soldotna moves forward to face Wasilla in the semifinals today at 1 p.m. at Palmer High.

Carver scored Soldotna’s lone goal in a 1-1 regular-season tie with WHS. The winner of that match earns an automatic bid to the ASAA state tournament.

Contact Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.