The Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé Crimson Bears girls soccer team flipped the pitch against Railbelt Conference foe West Valley at Adair Kennedy Park, topping the visiting Wolfpack from Fairbanks 2-1. JDHS had lost 5-2 on Friday.
“Yesterday West Valley won the 50-50s and put pressure on the ball right away,” JDHS coach Matt Dusenberry said. “But we found a little bit of success for ourselves today by matching that, winning more balls. That gave us more time to then go create things for ourselves.”
JDHS started with a flurry of possession with shots on goal and junior Peyton Wheeler put he first goal in from 15 yards out.
“I saw Natalie (Travis) play the perfect ball over to me and I knew the goalie was going to come out but I didn’t think she was going to come at me,” Wheeler said. “I just took a touch right over her and saw it go in…The win is really big for us. That’s what we need to win our conference to potentially make it to state. But it feels really good as a team to know that we can come back and fight really hard.”
Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé freshman defender Zoe Tagsip (17) stops a shot by West Valley sophomore forward Charlee Stanford (20) as JDHS junior keeper Alba Muir protects the net during the Crimson Bears’ 2-1 win over the Wolfpack on Saturday at Adair Kennedy Park. (Klas Stolpe / Juneau Empire).
Senior two-time all-state center back Travis was moved this game to holding mid, a position she played as a freshman.
“I thought she can read the game very well and can also clip a ball into space quite well so,” coach Dusenberry said. “You saw that on the first goal that Peyton had. Natalie won it and she put just enough on it to put it past the mess, and Peyton came and picked it up and put it in on frame to the back of the net.”
Travis said “it’s a lot more running so it was a little humbling. I was crying because I could not breathe, which is funny because we worked on conditioning a lot this year. But then I went to center back and I didn’t have to run as much and then today I got put there.”
Travis compared the position to being a bully.
“You’re a lot more in the game,” she said. “I make a lot more plays in the defensive mid than I do when I’m playing center back. I can still make those plays when I’m center back, but it’s a lot easier because I’m closer up I guess, but it’s a lot nicer. I don’t know which one I like more, but defense is less running so I like that a little bit, but I do get to assist and I have more scoring opportunities too when I’m playing that position.”
Crimson Bears senior Priscilla Lam was rewarded with the second goal just before halftime as a ball came out of a scrum and found her feet, and she lofted a shot over the Wolfpack advancing keeper.
“It felt great,” Lam said. “The energy was up the entire game and I was wide open at the 20 yard and Miley (Andrews) fumbled the ball and a defender kicked it out towards me and I just shot it in…over the goalie. I thought it might go over the goal, but it went over the goalie’s hands and my team ran up to me. We were just celebrating it.”
JDHS rotated a steady roster of defenders and attackers throughout the game, showing they have depth to contend in the upper division of soccer.
“The win is really important because in our conference we don’t want to be at the very end of it,” sophomore Riley Schultz said. “We want to be on top so that we can eventually make it to state at the end. So the fact that we got this win is really important because we weren’t very happy with the loss yesterday, but we were able to turn it around and come back and get the W.”
West Valley would earn a goal off a corner kick that nestled near Wolfpack junior Mary Stordahl and she pulled her team to within 2-1.
Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé sophomore Riley Schultz touches a ball to junior teammate Peyton Wheeler during the Crimson Bears’ 2-1 win over the West Valley Wolfpack on Saturday at Adair Kennedy Park. (Klas Stolpe / Juneau Empire).
The two sides would exchange runs and shots as the time forced faster action and with a minute left to play a ball was advanced to the front of the JDHS box. West Valley junior Evyn Bowen and JDHS junior keeper Alba Muir both raced to win it with Muir reaching the ball a split second sooner and dominating the point of contact.
“I saw it coming but I was really worried I wasn’t going to get to it in time,” Muir said. “My immediate thing is I just try to attack as much as I can no matter who is getting hurt or who I’m hitting, I’m not going to lie. As long as my goal is the ball, which it was, I’m good. As long as I’m in the direction of the ball I’m good. My first priority is to keep it out of that goal…I got a piece of it and knocked it out of bounds, I looked behind me and they were like stacked on top of each other…This was the first cool-looking save, not the first save, just a cool-looking one.”
JDHS freshman Zoe Tagsip earned the Crimson Bears Hard Hat Award.
“I’ve played defense my whole soccer career and just this season I started playing left wing back,” Tagsip said. “So I think it was really nice going back to defense because I already knew everything so it was really nice. I already know how to play it because Moctar (Diouf) was my coach and he taught me how to play defense. Before I was actually a forward but I don’t know how to play forward anymore. I just know how to play defense.”
The JDHS girls are now 1-1 in the RBC and 3-1 overall. West Valley is 1-1. JDHS had defeated the Cook Inlet Conference’s Eagle River 3-0 and 5-0 to open the season.
JDHS plays at Division II Northern Lights Conference opponent Houston on Thursday and at DI RBC Colony (0-1 RBC, 4-4 overall) Friday and Saturday.
• Contact Klas Stolpe at klas.stolpe@juneauempire.com.
