State soccer: Valley teams draw familiar foes

PALMER — After a midseason boys’ soccer loss to Soldotna, the Colony Knights wanted to see the Stars in the Northern Lights Conference tournament. The Knights wanted some revenge. Colony got that chance and the Knights prevailed, beating SoHi in the conference semifinals.

Now the Knights have set their sights on another rematch.

Days after suffering a 3-1 loss to Kenai in the NLC final, the Knights have another crack at the Kards. In an All-NLC quarerfinal, Colony meets Kenai in the first round of the ASAA/First National Bank State Soccer Championships Thursday at 6 p.m. at Eagle River High School.

“We want it bad in the sense that you always want redemption,” Colony head coach Jeremy Johnson said Monday.

Johnson said the Knights have a chip on their shoulder after suffering the two-goal loss in the region final.

“They’re a team that can, and did, beat us. But we feel like they’re a team we know we can beat,” Johnson said of the Kards.

Johnson said, overall, he feels good about his draw and Colony’s place on the bracket. The Knights and Kards share the bottom side with West Valley and Service. West Valley edged Colony 2-1 in the Knights’ season-opener in March. Colony has not played Service, the No. 2 seed in the Cook Inlet Conference. But Colony has played the other two CIC teams in the tournament tough, posting a 3-2 win over West Anchorage and a 2-1 loss to South.

In the other first-round matchups, South plays Juneau-Douglas and Soldotna meets West.

State tournament matchups are decided by a blind draw administered by ASAA.

The Colony girls’ soccer squad drew a foe very familiar to longtime head coach Lorie Miner. The Knights open girls’ state tournament play against West Valley Thursday at noon at Eagle River High. The match will mark the fifth state tournament meeting between the two programs since 2008.

This is Colony’s first trip to the state tourney since 2013. The Knights started their 2013 tourney with a quarterfinal win over the Wolfpack.

“We’re kind of excited to get that in our blind draw,” Miner said.

The Knights have not played a handful of teams in the state tournament field. Colony didn’t face the Wolfpack this season. But they at least share a common opponent, Miner said. Both teams beat Bartlett.

Mid-Alaska Conference champion West Valley finished as the runner-up in the state tournament last year.

Colony finished third in the NLC tournament last weekend.

Wasilla, which won its first NLC title in school history with a shootout victory over Kenai May 21, drew arguably the toughest opponent in the girls’ field, undefeated Dimond. Wasilla head coach Patrick O’Neill said the Warriors are up for the challenge.

“I’m actually excited to have the opportunity to play the No. 1 team in the state on fresh legs,” O’Neill said of the meeting, slated for Thursday at 4 p.m. at Eagle River High.

The Warriors faced Dimond earlier in the season, with the Lynx scoring a 4-0 victory. But that match was part of a brutal stretch for the Warriors, O’Neill said, the fourth game in a six-day span. The Warriors were also missing two key starters.

“Overall we played them pretty tough,” O’Neill said of the first meeting. “I’m excited to play them again with fresh legs and that much more experience.”

Wasilla and Dimond share the top side of the bracket with West Valley and Colony. The bottom half features West Anchorage meeting Juneau-Douglas and Kenai facing Service.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.