Teams eager to out-work rivals

MAT-SU — When the Colony Knights opened the season with seven seniors and 11 returning starters, longtime Colony head coach Jeremy Johnson knew the 2009 Knights had the potential to be the top team in the Northern Lights Conference this season.

When the top-seeded Knights prepare to open the NLC Championships against Nikiski on Thursday, Colony will still have that experience and skill. Now it’s just a matter of putting in the work.

“We feel like we can win any match we’re in if we’re playing our game and working as hard as we should,” Johnson said. “When we let teams out-work us is when we run into trouble. Hard work beats skill all the time.”

Senior captains Bridger VanNess and Chris Bardsley lead a Knights squad that finished the regular season 8-1-2 overall and 3-0-1 in North Division play.

VanNess is also among a trio of Knights who have posted double digits in scoring during the regular season. Junior Oliver Querin has six goals and 11 assists. Sophomore James Meaney has a team-high 11 goals and five assists. VanNess has added five goals and seven helpers.

Meaney accounted for both scores during a 2-2 tie with Wasilla that closed the regular season. That tie gave the Warriors a 3-0-1 mark in division play, but after record against common opponents outside the division settled a tiebreaker, the Warriors were handed the second seed.

Wasilla, which finished 5-2-3 overall, opens tourney play against Homer at 3 p.m. on Thursday.

Like his counterpart at Colony, Wasilla head coach Blake Livingston said work ethic will play into his team’s success.

“The last two weeks I think we showed that we can play with anybody,” Livingston said. “We’re hoping to come out strong and keep it going. We need to stay together as a team and out-work everybody.”

Leading the Warriors are senior Aaron Sharrow, a three-time all-NLC selection, and senior Tillerman Kroon, Wasilla’s captain on defense.

Palmer has traveled across peaks and valleys during its 2009 campaign. After starting the season by beating rival Wasilla and nearly knocking off the defending state champion Juneau-Douglas Crimson Bears, the Moose have endured their share struggles as of late.

Palmer ended the regular season with a 3-1 loss to Grace, a match that pushed the Moose to the fourth seed in the North Division. The dubious consolation prize is a meeting with top-seeded Soldotna in the first round.

“It was an important game to try to avoid Soldotna,” a disappointed Palmer head coach Kevin Dearborn said.

Seniors Steven Williams and Philip Jansen and juniors Zach Zegzdryn and Brennan Bohman are the leaders of a squad that will now try to play spoiler in the first round of the tourney when the Moose face the Stars at 5 p.m. at PHS.

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