Unbeaten Knights claim 9th NLC title

KENAI — Jonas Madsen isn’t from the Valley. Heck, he’s not even an American citizen. But the Danish foreign exchange student will always have a place in Colony High sports history after his “golden goal” lifted the Knights to a come-from-behind overtime win over Wasilla Saturday in the championship game of the Northern Lights Conference soccer tournament at the Kenai Sports Complex in Kenai.

“I was just in the right place,” Madsen said.

Madsen’s goal came with just seconds remaining in the second of two overtime periods. The game was so close to going to penalty kicks, in fact, that the head referee blew the final whistle before the ball had been retrieved from the Wasilla net.

“What happened?” Colony coach Jeremy Johnson asked, seemingly worried that the goal may have been disallowed. “What’s the call?”

When finally informed that the game was over, Johnson raced onto the field to join his players in a raucous celebration of Colony’s undefeated season and a ninth NLC title.

Madsen’s goal came thanks to some help from Oliver Querin and Jesse Rouse. After a Wasilla foul, Querin sent in a free kick from roughly 35 yards out. Maneuvering for position in the box, Rouse got just enough of a foot on the ball to deflect it to Madsen, whose falling-down strike cleanly beat Wasilla keeper Eli Tingstad.

The goal was the third in a row for Colony, which found itself stunned in the first half by a Wasilla team that came out determined to do everything it could to hand the Knights their first loss of the year.

The Warriors opened the scoring in the 4th minute when some sloppy Colony defending on a corner kick led to an own goal by the Knights.

“I think that caught us a little off guard,” Querin said of the early Wasilla goal.

Colony tied the game at 1-1 on a penalty kick by Aaron Richardson, but the Warriors went to the half on a high note when Paul Sliwa slashed right through the heart of the Colony defense and slid onto a perfect feed from Jake Barber to beat Colony goalie Jesse Kray.

The poor defensive play sent the always-animated Colony coach through the roof.

“You want a championship?” Johnston screamed at his squad. “Let’s go out and earn it! If you want to give it to ‘em let’s go get on the bus right now!”

Colony’s players decided to stay on the pitch, and in the second half it was the Warriors who looked like they needed a lift. The Knights provided a bevy of scoring chances in the half, tying things up on a header by James Meaney off Querin’s corner kick.

The Knights then turned up the heat, but couldn’t break through again against Tingstad, whose stellar play in net kept his team in the game through regulation and all but one second of the 20-minute overtime period. Tingstad twice denied Meaney on point-blank tries in the box, once on a header an once on a point-blank blast by the Colony single-season goals champ.

“Eli came up great, especially in overtime,” Johnson said.

Following the game, Wasilla coach Blake Livingston said he couldn’t have asked for more from his team, which was playing in its second overtime game in a row and competing in its seventh match in nine days.

“We played our hearts out, and just came up a little bit short,” he said.

Despite the loss, Wasilla can take solace in the fact that they’re still heading to the state tournament by virtue of their second-place showing, and Livingston said he’s not worried about his squad hanging its heads for too long.

“This team has a tremendous amount of character,” he said.

As for the Knights, both players and coach said the top goal is not to get overconfident. Last year, the Knights went to state as NLC champions and were sent packing after two games. That can’t happen this time around, Querin said.

“We just have to work hard this in remembrance of what happened last year,” he said.

Boys 3rd place

Grace 3, Palmer 2

Palmer’s boys team saw its state tournament hopes dashed Saturday afternoon in a 3-2 loss to Grace Christian, but it was Friday’s result that may have knocked the Moose out of the NLC tournament in Kenai.

“That overtime loss last night really took a lot of out of us,” Palmer coach Kevin Dearborn said, referring to Palmer’s 4-1 loss Friday to Wasilla.

Grace scored twice in the first 12 minutes to stun the Moose, who may have still been dwelling on Friday night’s heart breaker.

“On paper we probably can beat these guys, but you have to do it on the field,” Dearborn said.

Palmer finally stirred to life late in the game after Daniel Horowitz converted a penalty kick in the 66th minute.

Four minutes later, Alex Conrad made it 3-2 with a left-footed blast from the top of the penalty area.

But that was as close as Palmer would get, as Grace held off two late corner kick opportunities to seal the third-place win.

“I was glad we tried to give ourselves some chances to win the game, but that 2-0 deficit was just too much,” Dearborn said.