State soccer: Penalty kicks push Juneau past Colony boys

ANCHORAGE — Unfortunately for Colony, close just doesn't quite cut it.

The Knights came within inches of getting a game-tying goal in the final minutes of their ASAA/First National Bank Alaska State Soccer Championship match against Juneau-Douglas, then watched helplessly as the Crimson Bears iced the game with its second score by penalty kick of the evening.

“I gotta say, I'm really proud of the effort the boys put in today,” Colony coach Jeremy Johnson said following the 3-1 loss. “They proved they can step up and play with these high-level teams.”

Juneau's Colin Flynn made the biggest play of the game when his desperation lunge narrowly cleared what would have been a sure goal by Colony's Weston Patrick, whose header of a Logan Smith throw-in got past Juneau goalie Sam Post — but not Flynn.

“It was really close,” Flynn said of the shot, which got to within a foot of the goal line.

Juneau entered the game as the tournament's No. 2 seed, and in the beginning looked like they'd easily handle No. 7 Colony on the turf of Anchorage Football Stadium.

The Crimson Bears went up 1-0 when Colony defender Chris Bardsley was whistled for a foul inside his own penalty area, allowing Flynn to convert the penalty kick in the 27th minute.

But after that, the Knights seemed to come alive, and Colony picked up the equalizer just three minutes later when freshman forward James Meaney flipped a nifty pass over his head to a streaking Oliver Querin, who hammered the ball past Post to make it 1-1 heading into the second half.

“After the first 10 minutes, they got used to the pace,” Johnson said. “They withstood the pressure and looked around and said, 'maybe we can do this.'”

Colony nearly took the lead early in the second half when Querin banged a hard shot off the crossbar, and the game looked like it may be heading toward overtime until Colony goalie Elliott Gilbert made a costly mistake, leaving his line in an effort to stop a run by Aaron Bodilla.

Bodilla snuck past Gilbert, getting loose in front of the net and trickling home the game-winner.

Juneau picked up some insurance in the 90th minute, when Gilbert — whose aggressive play paid big dividends on several saves earlier in the game — was called for interfering with a Juneau player in the box, leading to Tuavo Maake's penalty kick to ice the game.

The loss dropped Colony into the consolation round, where the Knights play West Valley at 8 a.m. today at AFS.

While he was disappointed in the loss, Johnson said he's not yet ready to give up on this year's tournament, and believes his team's good play will continue into today's match.

“I just told them, if I've got a match to play, I want to win.”

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