State soccer tourney: Soldonta boys score 4 unanswered in win over Colony

ANCHORAGE — Elliott Gilbert was seeing Stars.

Despite Gilbert’s valiant effort, Soldotna slipped three goals past the Colony goalkeeper during the final seven minutes of regulation, allowing the Stars to steal a 4-2 victory over the Knights in the fourth-place match of the ASAA/First National Bank State Soccer Championships at Anchorage Football Stadium on Saturday.

As Colony head coach Jeremy Johnson stood dazed after the final whistle sounded, the last thing the longtime Knights head coach could do was fault his standout keeper.

“You can’t blame my goalkeeper, they’ve got to get through 10 people before they get to the goalkeeper,” Johnson said. “We just defended poorly.”

Sophomores Blaine Carver and Jeff Mullen each scored twice in the second half to help Soldotna comeback from a two-goal deficit.

“We didn’t play the game we should have in the second half,” Johnson said. “the last 10 minutes for sure.”

Oliver Querin and Logan Smith each scored in the first-half, allowing the Knights to take a 2-0 lead into the intermission.

Smith set up Querin’s goal, sending a long ball into the box. Querin, sitting at the far side of the net, sent a deflection past Soldotna goalkeeper Daniel Gellar during the early minutes of the game.

In stoppage play, during the final moments of the first half, Smith —parked in the backside of the box — knocked a Jesse Rouse cross into the lower left corner of the net to give the Knights the two-goal advantage.

Johnson said the Knights entered the intermission feeling fairly good about their first half of play against the team that kept Colony out of last year’s state tournament with a win over the Knights in the 2007 Northern Lights Conference tournament third-place game.

“I felt good, but I knew they were a quality side and they were going to put in a good effort in the second half,” Johnson said. “That’s what we discussed at halftime, closing the doors and not letting them get anything in the second half. And we weren’t able to accomplish that.”

Just as the Stars did in the 2007 NLC tourney, for the final 40 minutes of the fourth-place game, Soldotna proved to be Colony’s kryptonite.

Carver cut Soldotna’s deficit in half, cracking a hard shot into the far side of the net following a long rush down the right side in the 44th minute.

In the 73rd minute Carver sparked Soldotna’s late heroics with his second goal of the game, a virtual garbage goal set up by a Mullen shot.

Mullen came in from the left side and put a shot on goal. Gilbert made the initial save, but the ball slipped away and Carver was there to clean up the mess.

Soldotna used a similar tactic to register the go-ahead goal in the 76th minute. Gilbert stepped forward to make a save, but once again, the ball slipped away. Mullen was there to push the ball right over a diving Gilbert and into the net.

“(Elliott) came up with the first save on a couple of those goals,” Johnson said. “and nobody was there to clear the rebound.

“All three goals we know how to defend and should have been able to defend.”

Soldotna added the rare empty-netter during stoppage play.

With a chance in their offensive zone, the Knights moved everyone forward, including Gilbert, to try to net the game tying score. Before Colony could find a quality scoring chance, Soldotna grabbed possession of the ball and pushed it back toward the Colony net. Mullen sent the ball from a crowd at midfield, and the ball trickled into the Knights’ net for the Stars’ fourth goal of the game.

Colony ends the 2008 season with an 11-3-1 record. The Knights were 8-0-1 during the regular season, and finished third in the conference tournament.

The Knights, who missed the state tournament for the first time in program history last season, have the potential to make a deep run into the state tourney next year. Colony returns all but two players on the varsity roster and all 11 starters.

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