Wasilla girls bounce Bulldogs to move into semis

SOLDOTNA — Once bitten, twice shy.

Exactly two weeks ago during a trip to the Kenai Peninsula, Wasilla suffered a frustrating loss to the Nikiski Bulldogs.

Nikiski led early and after the Warriors tied the game at 2, the Bulldogs knocked a ball into the net with about 30 seconds left in regulation to upset Wasilla.

Wasilla is back on the Kenai Peninsula playing the Bulldogs, But this time it’s in the conference tournament, and this time made sure Nikiski was unable to pull off any late-match heroics.

Nikki Vanni scored early, Josie Fletcher posted a pair of goals and the Warriors didn’t allow a Nikiski shot during a 4-0 win over the Bulldogs in the first round of the Northern Lights Conference Championships at Soldotna High School.

“The girls didn’t forget that,” Wasilla head coach Patrick O’Neill said about the prior loss to the Bulldogs by cellphone from Soldotna Thursday evening. “I’m still trying to wrap my head around how it all went down (two weeks ago). It left a bad taste in everybody’s mouth.”

Vanni scored three minutes into regulation to give the Warriors the early lead.

“We wanted to come out strong,” O’Neill said.

Fletcher added goals during the 30^th and 39^th minutes to push Wasilla’s lead to 3-0 before the half. O’Neill said his players embraced the opportunity to meet the Bulldogs once again.

“When the seedings came out, we were all kind of glad we had the chance to take them on again,” O’Neill said.

Wasilla also didn’t allow an official Nikiski shot in the game.

“It was a total team game, all the way around,” O’Neill said.

Wasilla was the lone Valley girls team to win on Thursday. Soldotna used an early lead to get by Palmer and Kenai dealt Colony a heartbreaking 2-1 loss in overtime.

Palmer head coach Harmony Chadwick said she didn’t want to make excuses, but playing in the bracket’s early game at 11 a.m. was a tough draw for the Moose. Palmer High’s graduation ceremony was Wednesday night at PHS.

“Half the team traveled down the morning after graduation. We were dead from the get-go,” Chadwick said. “We sort of dug ourselves a little hole.”

Soldotna took a 3-0 lead into the half, but Palmer’s Kendall Howe put the Moose on the scoreboard early in the second half. Chadwick said as the confidence of her team grew, Soldotna was able to strike again.

Despite the loss, Chadwick praised the work of her goaltender, senior Morgan Morfe.

“She made great saves, lots of saves,” Chadwick said of Morfe, who played the final stretch of the regular season sick and injured.

Morfe finished with 15 saves in the loss.

Kenai ended Colony’s streak of four straight trips to the state tournament with the 2-1 win over the Knights. The Kards scored 19 minutes into the extra period to move into the semifinals.

Both Colony and Palmer saw their seasons come to an end during the single-elimination first round.

Wasilla is now just one win away from its sixth straight trip to the state tournament. The Warriors face top-seeded Wasilla today at 1 p.m. at Skyview High School. Kenai and Grace Christian meet in the second semifinal at 5. The winners of the semifinal matches earn an automatic berth to the state tournament and will play for a conference title Saturday at 2 p.m. The losers meet in the third-place game at 10 a.m. The winner of the third-place game earns the conference’s third and final berth to the state tournament, which starts May 24 in Anchorage.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com and follow him at twitter.com/mats_sports.