Crimson Bears girls score seven goals, complete sweep of Malemutes
- Klas Stolpe
- 4 days ago
- 4 min read
JDHS senior Peyton Wheeler scores twice, assists three times, climbs record books
By Klas Stolpe
Juneau Independent
The Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé girls soccer team scored seven goals against Lathrop on Thursday at the Adair-Kennedy Memorial Park pitch to complete a sweep of their Railbelt Conference rivals. The Crimson Bears had blanked the Malemutes 4-0 on Wednesday.
JDHS senior Peyton Wheeler earned the team’s Hard Hat award as her two goals and three assists on the night moved her up in the Crimson Bears' career leader board.
Wheeler’s two goals total 12 on the season and 61 for her career, moving her past 2011 JDHS graduate Sarah Tarver (60) for fourth all-time for the Crimson Bears behind 2019 graduate Malia Miller (105), 2014 graduate Margaret Sekona (94) and 2024 graduate Cadence Plummer (65).
“It is pretty big,” Wheeler said. “Just to work hard and be able to come out and show what I have is really big for me. Definitely an exclamation point for me on my career.”
Wheeler is also one of the team’s leaders in unselfishness and her three assists give her a career total of 31. She passed Sekona (28) and Miller (30) for third all-time behind 2022 graduate Blake Plummer (48) and 2021 graduate Taylor Bentley (41).
“We just encourage each other to work hard and try to win the ball first,” Wheeler said. “We just work as a team and try to keep each other positive no matter if we are down or anything.”
JDHS first score of the night came from a Wheeler corner kick into the Lathrop box that Crimson Bears junior Riley Schultz booted in for a 1-0 lead. Two minutes later freshman Maddie Dale played a ball to sophomore Ayla Erickson, who hit a blast from 25 yards out for a 2-0 lead.
Wheeler added a goal with 16 minutes left in the first half, assisted by senior Kenzie Simonson, and another goal with 13 minutes remaining, assisted by sophomore Zoe Tagsip for a 4-0 advantage.
Erickson scored with nine minutes left in the stanza as Wheeler put a pass to a spot roughly 18 yards in front of the Lathrop box for 5-0.
With three minutes left in the first half, JDHS’ Erickson put a hard shot against the Lathrop keeper, freshman Maya Mothershead put a shot off the Lathrop keeper's crossbar and Schultz missed a shot wide. Erickson and Wheeler both had shots miss in stoppage time to end the half.
Wheeler, Tagsip and junior Claire Overson each had a shot that missed wide to open the second half.
JDHS earned a corner with 32 minutes remaining in the stanza and Wheeler put a ball in the box that Tagsip kicked past the Lathrop keeper for 6-0.
Another corner by Wheeler with 20 minutes remaining was controlled by Erickson, who nudged the ball to Dale and the freshman scored for the 7-0 final.
Seniors Tearamae Alexander and Raynona Fraker split the game in the Crimson Bears box. Fraker had two saves.
Schultz and Erickson had five shots apiece, Wheeler four, Overson and Mothershead three apiece, Tagsip, Dale, Simonson and freshman Mia Alexander two each, and freshman Hailey Romero one.
Erickson totaled 71 minutes of game action, Wheeler 68, Schultz 66, Simonson 63, Overson 61, sophomore Nellie Stowers and Marigold Lindoff 60 apiece, senior Piper Blackgoat-Diehl 50, sophomore Gracie Snyder 44, Mothershead 41, Dale 40, freshman Hailey Romero and junior Kate Bovitz 30 apiece, sophomore Cooper Blackgoat-Diehl and freshmen Amaya Henderson, Emma Kovach and Alexander 20 each.
JDHS improves to 5–1 overall and 2-0 in the RBC record. They have defeated Ketchikan 5-1 and 5-1 and Chugiak 3-2. Their lone loss is to Chugiak 4-3. Lathrop is now 0-4 in the RBC. The Malemutes have also lost to Colony 6-0 and Wasilla 5-0.
JDHS travels to Fairbanks for games against West Valley on Wednesday and Thursday, April 29-30, and at North Pole on Friday, May 1. Their next home matches are May 8-9 versus Colony.
• Contact Klas Stolpe at klas.stolpe@gmail.com.
