The Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé Crimson Bears girls soccer team put up a tenacious fight against visiting Railbelt Conference foe West Valley, but fell 5-2 in the Friday rain at Adair Kennedy Park.
“It was their energy,” JDHS coach Matt Dusenberry said of the visiting Wolfpack. “I think they won most of the 50-50 balls and that is going to pay dividends quite a bit.”
This was the first game of the season for the West Valley girls and gives them a 1-0 Railbelt Conference standing.
On Friday West Valley had ball possession just enough to stake the claim on the win despite JDHS getting strong shots on goal in the first half from seniors Natalie Travis and Cerys Hudson, and sophomore Clairee Overson from distance.
The Wolfpack took a 1-0 lead in the first half on a goal from junior Mary Stordahl.
In the opening of the second half Stordahl put a ball through the JDHS box and junior Lola Seitz struck a shot that curved into the far post for a 2-0 lead.
Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé senior Adelyn Buss heads a ball against West Valley during the Crimson Bears’ 5-2 loss to the Wolfpack on Friday at Adair Kennedy Park. The teams play again at 10 a.m. Saturday. (Klas Stolpe / Juneau Empire)
JDHS junior Peyton Wheeler responded with a corner kick that settled onto the feet of junior Kenzie Simonson to close the score to 2-1.
The Crimson Bears had a chance to tie the game, but senior Milina Mazon was basically triple-teamed off a run by West Valley junior Hailey Staiger, sophomore Ilsa Butman and junior Sakaia Fischer.
Wolfpack sophomore Charlee Stanford touched a soft shot from the side to give West Valley a 3-1 lead shortly after.
JDHS freshman Marigold Lindoff played a ball into Wheeler who hit a shot from 15 yards out that curved over the West Valley keeper to close to 3-2 but West Valley struck back with goals by Stordahl and junior Lena Wiegand for the 5-2 final.
JDHS’ Lindoff earned the team’s Hard Hat Award for her play in the match.
“I think it was just because I came out with a lot of energy and I kept it up the whole game,” Lindoff said. “I was really working on pressing high. That was my goal for the game, just keep my energy up the whole time and make hard presses and stay up high. I think I succeeded in that. Just bringing the energy on the field and talking a lot. Even though this wasn’t the score we wanted I don’t think we were outplayed as a team and I really just wanted to keep the energy up, keep the morale up and not let ourselves get down…I’m really excited because I’m a freshman and getting this is really cool and this is a really cool year because it’s our first year in the Railbelt and playing against these high-level teams.”
Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé freshman Marigold Lindoff (22) wins a ball against West Valley during the Crimson Bears’ 5-2 loss to the Wolfpack on Friday at Adair Kennedy Park. The teams play again at 10 a.m. Saturday. (Klas Stolpe / Juneau Empire).
The JDHS girls are now 0-1 in the RBC and 2-1 overall. West Valley is 1-0.
“We got baptized right away with the rain, as soon as we got off the bust it started to downpour,” West Valley coach Shannon Staiger said. “This is our first game this year and we just got out on the fields in Fairbanks because the snow just melted up there. I think it was just a lot of shaking off the rust. I think that the ideas that the girls had throughout the game were good but execution just wasn’t there in the first half. As the game progressed I thought we cleaned it up…The key to the game is a strong midfield…and I think we were a little sloppy at the beginning and a lot of that had to do with just getting out on the fields and a little bit of nerves and I thought the girls responded well.”
The Crimson Bears face West Valley at 10 a.m. Saturday, followed by the boys against West Valley at noon.
“I think we need to match their energy with trying to win the 50-50 balls,” JDHS coach Dusenberry said. “Finding the second ball. I think we made it more of a challenge for ourselves and we worked so hard to win the ball and when we did win it we gave it away cheaply or easily. We had other opportunities or other girls that were open but went to the ones that were not and West Valley picked off the passes.”
West Valley last came to Juneau during the 2010 state championships when the Crimson Bears hosted at AKF and the two squads at that time tied in the third-place match 2-2. Dimond defeated Service 1-0 for the title that season. JDHS defeated Wasilla 3-0 in the quarterfinals and fell to Dimond 1-0 in the semifinals.
• Contact Klas Stolpe at klas.stolpe@juneauempire.com.
