Warriors sweep Patriots in program’s first matches on turf field

WASILLA — The Wasilla Warriors boys and girls soccer teams spent Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon shoveling the remains from a recent snowfall off the turf of Veterans Memorial Field. On Thursday, the Warriors were hosting the North Pole Patriots.

“We spent half the week shoveling, trying to save this match,” Wasilla head coach Blake Livingston said after the Warrior boys beat North Pole 7-1. “It was fantastic to be able to come out and play.”

The matches were the Warrriors’ first on the turf field, which was installed last summer.

Oleg Lozko scored five times to lead the Warriors to the nonconference win. Livingston, Wasilla’s longtime head coach who has led the Warriors to multiple conference titles, said he can’t remember the last time a Warrior scored five goals in a match.

“Oleg had an outstanding game,” Livingston said.

Lozko’s ability to take on players and finish his shot allows him to be successful, Livingston said. Livingston also praised the ability of his athletes to get the ball to Lozko.

“I felt like we played really well in the offensive third. The midfield was doing a good job linking up with the strikers. We were using the wings really well,” Livingston said. “Our strikers did a really good job of playing off each other.”

Ethan Keenan and Kevin O’Laughlin also scored in the win. O’Laughlin converted a penalty kick to notch his goal.

Wasilla, which opened the season with a 2-0 loss to West Valley at The Dome in Anchorage earlier this month, improved to 1-1 with the win.

Alexa Starr scored twice to lead the Wasilla girls to a 5-0 win over North Pole.

“Considering this is our first game, I thought we played really well,” Wasilla head coach Patrick O’Neill said. “We’ve been practicing since March 17, but you’re really never sure how you’re going to come out.”

Alexis Abbott, Teyonnah Williams and Ally Hull also scored in the win. Victoria Runyon earned the shutout in her debut as the Wasilla starting goalkeeper.

The storm that hit the Valley earlier this week did dump a fresh layer of snow on the Wasilla turf. But prior to that, O’Neill said the Warriors had spent their preseason outside.

“The last two years we played our first game on the first day we got to play outside. This year, we’ve had two weeks of practice on this field. I think it was a real advantage for us. We were used to the field, used to the space,” O’Neill said.

North Pole will stay in the Valley to face Palmer on Friday and Colony

Saturday.