Staying alive: Palmer girls edge Houston, advance to conference tourney

HOUSTON — After Palmer sophomore Kiley Fish curved her corner kick from the right side of the field to the near side of the net there was a scramble.

And then a pause.

The Moose weren’t quite sure what happened. But it didn’t matter. The ball was in the back of the net, and Palmer was ahead 3-2.

The Moose used the mystery play to take a lead and held on for a 3-2 win over the Houston Hawks Friday afternoon at Houston High School.

“It looked like it went it, but we weren’t sure,” Palmer head coach Harmony Chadwick said after the win.

Chadwick stood tense next to her players on the visitor’s bench to see if in fact that ball did bounce in for the go-ahead score.

Chadwick said the ball may have bounced off of sophomore Calie Dosser. But regardless, with accuracy of the Fish corner kick and Palmer’s presence in front of the Houston goal, the ball found its way into the back of the net.

And even better for the Moose, the fortunate bounce came in match that had much on the line for both Palmer and Houston. The Moose were tied in the Northern Lights Conference North Division standings with the up-and-coming Houston squad. Friday’s winner would earn the No. 4 seed in the upcoming NLC Championships, which start Thursday in Kenai. The loser would be left out of region tournament play.

“We stayed alive, which is awesome,” Chadwick said.

And the Moose managed to stay alive with a victory over an up-and-coming Houston girls program.

“They definitely wanted it. They’re a tough group,” Chadwick said of the Hawks. “It’s only going to get tougher with them.”

Palmer held a 2-0 lead in the match, taking the advantage with goals from Delany Shults and Isabelle Rice. But the Moose watched it quickly disappear.

Houston’s Teeana Nicholai scored twice during a two-minute span to knot the match at 2.

During the 53rd minute, Houston chipped the ball into the left side of the box, Nicholai settled it and sent a hard strike into the far side of the net. Two minutes later, the speedy striker raced by the Palmer defense and sent a swift kick into the back of the net.

“She’s a fantastic player, super fast,” Chadwick said of Nicholai.

But Palmer managed to overcome the Houston rally.

“I think they are super resilient,” Chadwick said of her players. “They really wanted to win. They really wanted to work hard and do this.”

Chadwick praised the overall play of Fish in the win. In addition to setting up the game-winner with the corner kick, Fish spent her afternoon try to chase down Houston’s flock of fast forwards.

“Kiley had a hard job today. I didn’t sub her,” Chadwick said. “She had to work through all the heat, all the sprinting.”

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