Warriors battle through, win NLC title

PALMER — On Thursday, Wasilla stood a minute away from the end of its 2011 season. Two days later, the Warriors were crowned conference champions.

Wasilla capped a marvelous tournament run with a 2-1 win over the Grace Christian Grizzlies during the title match of the Northern Lights Conference Championships at Colony High School on Saturday.

“You learn a lot from adversity, and this team’s been through a lot of adversity over the course of this season,” Wasilla head coach Blake Livingston said. “It’s made us stronger.”

Wasilla’s tournament started with a 2-1 overtime win over Soldotna in the quarterfinals. The Warriors trailed until the final minute of regulation, when senior Paul Sliwa converted a late penalty kick to tie the game at 1 and force overtime. That contest was headed for the shootout. But with one minute left in the second overtime, Sliwa knocked in another penalty kick to give the Warriors the 2-1 win.

That win earned Wasilla an NLC semifinal date with top-seeded Colony. Despite being the underdog, the Warriors prevailed with a 4-2 win over the Knights.

And if staring down potential defeat in the first round and the need to upset the top team in the second round was not enough adversity, the Warriors were forced to play much of the second half against Grace Christian without Sliwa, their senior captain and the 2011 NLC Player of the Year.

Early in the second half, Sliwa collided with the Grace goalkeeper. Sliwa had to be helped off the field, thanks to what Livingston called a bruised thigh.

“Everyone knew we needed to rally around not having Paul,” Livingston said. “We had to keep our composure, not panic and try to finish the game out.”

Not only did the Warriors not panic, Wasilla continued to put pressure on the offensive net and grabbed the go-ahead goal in the second half.

“I think we pulled through it,” Wasilla senior Cameron Perry said. “We realized (Paul) was gone and we played as hard as we could.”

Perry used a corner kick to set up the go-ahead score. The senior placed a ball in the middle of the goalie box, and sophomore Kyler Perry hammered it into the goal.

“Kyler just buried it,” Livingston said.

With the Perry-to-Perry goal, Wasilla continued its success with set pieces. During Wasilla’s semifinal win over Colony, all four goals were set up by the throw-in or corner kick.

“We’ve definitely gotten more dangerous on our set pieces,” Livingston said. “It was nice to capitalize on them this weekend.”

Wasilla’s first score against Grace, which came very early in regulation, was actually a Grizzly own-goal. But a Derek Johnsen throw-in preceded the Grizzly defender’s header into his own net. Johnsen also set up goals with his throws against Colony.

Grace was able to tie the score 18 minutes later. Tyler Houston put a header across the front of the net, and Jordan Edwards picked up the loose ball and scored.

The Warriors have nine seniors on the squad, but freshman and sophomores have also factored heavily into the success.

“We have a lot of talent, but we have a lot of young players,” Cameron Perry said. “They’re stepping up.”

All-Northern

Lights Conference

Boys NLC co-Player of the Year: Paul Sliwa, Wasilla; Jordan Edwards, Grace.

Boys NLC Coach of the Year: Jeremy Johnson, Colony.

Boys All-NLC first team:

Tyler Houston, Grace; John Weber, Grace; Daniel Fullmer, Grace; James

Meaney, Colony; Hunter Fisher, Colony; Matt Kelly, Colony; Eli Tingstad,

Wasilla; Avery Palchikoff, Kenai; Stefan Krogseng, Nikiski; Logan Basner,

Colony; Daniel Burton, Palmer; Robin Glosser, Homer.

Boys All-NLC second team

Cameron Perry, Wasilla; Kyler Perry, Wasilla; Travis Patterson, Wasilla;

Turner Rodgers, Grace; Bryce Rodgers, Grace; John Meaney, Colony; Kyle

Wisner, Homer; Konstantin Reutov, Homer; Cory Carver, Soldotna; Tate

Syverson, Soldotna; Dawson Pearson, Soldotna; Auberin Strickland, Palmer.