STRONG FINISH

PALMER — It took only six minutes for Colony captain Bridger Van Ness to break the match wide open.

Van Ness converted a pair of penalty kicks and set up another Colony goal during a six-minute span to spark the Knights in an 8-1 win over the Homer Mariners at Colony High School on Saturday.

Collin Murphy crashed the net to knock a ball off a Van Ness kick into the net during the 44th minute to break a 1-1 tie, and Van Ness scored on his first of two penalty kicks just a minute later to help Colony improve to 4-0-0 overall.

The scores accounted for three of Colony’s seven second-half goals.

“We had a talk at halftime,” Colony head coach Jeremy Johnson said. “What are we doing? We’re not playing our game. We need to step up.”

And that’s exactly what Colony did.

James Meaney, Dylan Crawford, Chris Bardsley and Oliver Querin also scored in the final 40 minutes for the Knights, who blasted Skyview 8-0 on Friday night.

“I think we just started winning 50-50 balls and controlling the game, not giving them opportunities,” Johnson said.

Homer’s Mark Wallsworth slipped through the Colony defense and scored during the fourth minute of the game to give Homer the early lead. Meaney scored the first of his two goals 15 minutes later to tie the game at 1-1, and the two Northern Lights Conference rivals played the remainder of the first half locked at one goal each.

“We were just taking way too many touches with the ball,” Johnson said. “We were holding on to the ball way too long.

“Once we started knocking the ball around and passing it created a lot more space and time for us,” Johnson added. “It created opportunities. We got some goals, got some fortunate penalty kick calls.”

Van Ness bounced a curving indirect kick off a Homer defender, and Murphy crashed to slam in the go-ahead goal four minutes into the second.

“Murphy did a great job of following,” Johnson said. “We want Murphy in there for the headers and crashing. He was in a perfect position to find the rebound.”

After Van Ness nailed the two penalty kicks in five minutes, Meaney gave the Knights the 5-1 lead in the 53rd minute. Seven minutes later, Crawford knocked in a cross from the left side to push Colony’s lead to five goals.

Late in the game, Bardsley used a long kick to give the Knights the 7-1 lead and Querin weaved through the Homer defense and found the back of the net to cap the Knights scoring in the 79th minute.

Elliot Gilbert earned the win in the Colony net.

Colony 8, Skyview 0

PALMER — The Colony Knights cruised to an 8-0 win over Skyview Friday at Coloy High School.

Eight different Knights scored for CHS. Tim Jaronik, Jesse McKee, James Meaney, Cody Fritz, Matt Kelly, Dylan Crawford, Hunter Fisher and Tim Overdeuest each found the back of the net for the Knights.

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