Sophomore scores twice, Knights salvage tie

WASILLA — Somewhere between taking the early lead and allowing a pair of Wasilla goals during a 13-minute span in the first half, momentum just sort of slipped away from the Colony Knights.

“We had some lackadaisical moments,” Colony head coach Jeremy Johnson said. “Our guys kind of flat-lined it seemed like.”

But thankfully for Colony, the Knights recovered.

Sophomore James Meaney scored the second of his two goals during the 61st minute to help the Knights salvage a 2-2 tie with the Warriors at Wasilla High School on Saturday.

After Meaney popped a header into the Wasilla net during the seventh minute, the Warriors used goals from Paul Sliwa and Ray Keown to take the 2-1 lead.

“All of us really wanted to come out of this with a win,” Wasilla head coach Blake Livingston said. “Colony struck first and for us to get the equalizer and the go-ahead goal really showed a lot of character.”

Wasilla got on to the scoreboard when Colony goalkeeper Elliott Gilbert misplayed a Sliwa shot during the 16th minute. The Wasilla sophomore sent a hard strike to the net from about 20 yards out. Gilbert was in position, but the shot simply slipped through the finger tips of the typically sure-handed goalie.

About 13 minutes later, Keown pushed the ball down the left side, beat the Colony defense and put a tough shot into the far side of the net.

“That may have been the best finish we’ve had all season,” Livingston said.

Despite struggling through a few “lackadaisical” periods in the first half, Johnson felt his squad was able to control play for a solid portion of the first 40 minutes. But with a pair of goals and a few big saves by goalie Eli Tingstad, the Warriors held the advantage at the intermission.

Arguably Tingstad’s biggest stop came in the 35th minute when he dove to the left to slap away a hard Chris Bardsley shot.

“Eli came up with some huge saves. That one definitely was an incredible save,” Johnson said of Tingstad’s work on the Bardsley shot. “I told my kids at the half, you take away that one save by him, and that one mistake by Elliott that he would never normally make, it’s a 2-1 game in our direction.”

Meaney tied the score 21 minutes into the second when he found a bit of space inside the left side of the box and knocked a shot into the near side of the net.

“(Bridger Van Ness) knocked it down there, (Jesse Rouse) settled it nicely and James stepped up and used what little space he had,” Johnson said. “That’s what James does. He scores goals. He can finish.”

Colony was able to keep the ball in its attack third for a good portion of the final 15 minutes of the game. But the Wasilla defense, led by senior Tillerman Kroon, was able to prevent Colony from netting the game-winner.

“(Tillerman) was definitely the man of the match,” Livingston said. “I think our back line played really well and Eli came up with some pretty huge saves.”

Despite the tie, Johnson expects Colony to be the top seed in the Northern Lights Conference North Division in the upcoming NLC tourney. Both Colony and Wasilla finish the regular season 3-0-1 in division play, but Colony’s win over Nikiski earlier this season may become the tiebreaker. Wasilla tied the Bulldogs.

Colony’s lone loss to a common opponent came to Soldotna, a team that Wasilla also tied. But ties against Nikiski and SoHi would give the Warriors only two points in the standings. The win over Nikiski is worth three points.

The tourney brackets will be released Monday.

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