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JDHS soccer teams fall in second games at West Valley
- Klas Stolpe
- 8 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Road trip to Fairbanks sees Crimson Bears girls lose 1-0, boys fall 4-1
By Klas Stolpe
Juneau Independent
The Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé girls and boys varsity soccer teams fell on the road at Fairbanks on Thursday against their Railbelt Conference foe West Valley. The Crimson Bears girls fell to the Wolfpack 1-0 after winning 1-0 Wednesday. The boys lost 4-1; they had fallen 1-0 Wednesday.
“We kind of had an idea on how they liked to attack, and we practiced and worked on it,” JDHS girls coach Matt Dusenberry said. “They had success with it on other teams as well.”
West Valley junior Kaydence Witte scored the game’s lone goal.
“It was a great goal on their part,” Dusenberry said. “They got in from the side and played a ball through and Witte out ran us, got a touch inside and hit a pretty good shot across the goal mouth and put it in the upper corner, opposite side.”
The JDHS girls are now 6-2 overall and 3-1 in the RBC. The West Valley girls are 2-3 overall and 2-2 in the RBC.
“I didn’t think we were deserving of a loss,” Dusenberry said. “But they had their opportunity and scored. We had more opportunities… we hit the post on one… We had one that hit the crossbar and went straight down… From our vantage point it looked like it went in and went back out, but those shots like that from distance are sometimes tough to see.”
Crimson Bears sophomore Ayla Erickson had three shots in the match, sophomore Zoe Tagsip two, seniors Peyton Wheeler and Kenzie Simonson, junior Riley Schultz and freshmen Hailey Romero, Mia Alexander and Maya Mothershead one each. Senior goalkeeper Tearamae Alexander had four saves.
Wheeler, Simonson, Schultz, Erickson, Tagsip, sophomore Nellie Stowers, sophomore Marigold Lindoff played all 80 minutes, Mothershead 62, senior Piper Blackgoat Diehl 56, Romero 52, junior Claire Overson 28, junior Kate Bovitz 24 and M. Alexander 22.
Lindoff earned the team’s Hard Hat award.
“She did well,” Dusenberry said. “With the way West Valley plays, they either attack the left side or right side and they go from the back line to the inside and right back out down the line. They certainly did not find much success on Marigold’s side.”
Wolfpack seniors Lola Seitz, Mary Stordahl, Evyn Bowen, Lena Wiegand, junior E. Abrahamson and sophomore R. Williams played 80 minutes, senior Hailey Staiger 65, Witte 60, sophomore Eliza Anders 20, senior Sakaia Fischer, sophomore I. Jenkins and freshman AJ Miller 15 each and sophomore Hannah Bronson five. Senior Kaia Sharpton took the win in net.
The JDHS boys had an early lead in their match against the Wolfpack boys.
“We were up 1-0,” JDHS coach Gary Lehnhart said. “We played without Maddox (junior Maddox Carroll), which is not a good thing for us. He is still banged up and at this point we need to get him healthy… It showed as the game went on. He is our most complete player, and not having him is affecting us. But that is not why we lost. They are a good team. They had us outclassed.”
Crimson Bears junior Ethan Van Kirk passed a ball to classmate Sam Mazon for the score.
“It was a nice goal,” Lehnhart said. “A beautiful goal by him. And really, we were up one to nothing and battling really good, holding them off and we were looking like, maybe, somehow do this. But then we gave up a penalty score…”
The backbreaker was another score right before halftime, a rebound score for 2-1.
“It changed the whole vibe of the game,” Lehnhart said. “And they got one early in the second half and we struggled from there on. We were tired and run down. It is a good measuring stick for where we are right now.”
Lehnhart said watching yesterday’s game film confirmed, “How fortunate we were to get away with that 1-0 loss. We were scrappy and ran hard and competed but today their class showed through. Which at this point isn’t a bad thing. I think the message sent is that we have to get better…”
West Valley senior Koen Aitken scored two goals and one penalty kick goal and junior Cole Stumpf had one goal. Senior Quinn Willis had two assists.
“We got exposed in a lot of areas,” Lehnhart said. “One on one, too many unforced errors… What I told the guys was it is not like we can say these three guys have to get better. Even our best players were exposed in some extent in terms of going up against the other team’s best players, and not being able to dominate them. If we are having trouble at that level, and also at the other level, then, you know, you are going to lose the game. That is the message. We are going to have to get better, all across the board to play against teams that are at the highest level…”
West Valley played in the state championship game last season - falling to West Anchorage in penalty kicks - and returns most of that roster.
“They are a strong side,” Lehnhart said. “They have had a lot of exposure in terms of games played and experience and it showed today. They outclassed us. This is not a bad thing. And hopefully we will see it for what it is, which is a measuring stick. The question is, in thirty days, where will we be in relationship to where that team is? Will we close the gap? Or, will we not? The challenge is there, we will see if we accept it.”
The JDHS boys are now 2-2 in the Railbelt and 3-2-1 overall. West Valley is 4-0 in the RBC and 4-1 overall.
The JDHS girls were informed their varsity game against North Pole is canceled and will play a West Valley junior varsity game Friday at 10 a.m. The JDHS boys will face the North Pole Patriots varsity at noon.
