Brysen Mitchell and Jackson Norberg scored for the second consecutive day at the ASAA Division II boys soccer state championships, and now Juneau-Douglas High School’s soccer team will play in their first state championship game since 2012.
The Crimson Bears defeated North Pole High School 3-0 early Friday afternoon at Service High School in Anchorage. They’ll meet No. 1-seeded Kenai in the final on Saturday. The Kardinals ousted Homer 2-0 earlier in the day.
Mitchell put JDHS up 1-0 on a penalty kick in the 20th minute. The senior took three steps before calmly booting the ball to the right of the goalkeeper.
Junior Kanon Goetz then set up Norberg’s goal in the 32nd minute. Goetz collected the ball near the middle of the field and raced past two North Pole defenders. Just when it looked like he was trapped with nowhere else to run, Goetz made a diving pass to Norberg, who one-timed the ball in the net.
“I got lucky, got past a couple guys, got (the ball) between one guy’s legs and crossed it and Jackson finished it,” Goetz said.
JDHS was without several of its key players and relied heavily on Goetz and other players like reserve Erik Genitz.
“With Kanon being able to really occupy two or three of their players, it gave us a chance to match up in the midfield,” JDHS coach Gary Lehnhart said. “If we hadn’t been able to do that, we would’ve struggled.”
Mitchell scored the final goal off a corner kick in the 76th minute.
North Pole’s Thomas Bishop had a great chance to put the Patriots up 1-0 early in the game. Bishop received a pass from Anthony Iles and was in a prime position to score, but his shot met the foot of junior Ronan Davies just before it could cross the goal line.
“I just made a good run and they gave me a really good ball,” Bishop said. “I saw the goalie come up so I just decided to shoot it. It went through the goalie but there was a defender (in the way). It was just unlucky. I thought that was going to go in.”
North Pole will play Homer in the third-place match on Saturday. Grace Christian and Kodiak play on Friday night in the fourth-place game.
Whoever wins tomorrow between JDHS and Kenai will earn the distinction as the inaugural state champion in Division II boys soccer. Following the end of last season, the Alaska Schools Activities Association Board of Directors voted to divide high school soccer into two classifications: Division I (large schools) and Division II (small schools). Twelve schools make up the Division I classification while 19 fall under the Division II classification.
• Contact sports reporter Nolin Ainsworth at 523-2272 or nainsworth@juneauempire.com. Follow Empire Sports on Twitter at @akempiresports.
Juneau-Douglas High School junior Kanon Goetz expresses disbelief after his goal in the second half of the ASAA Division II boys soccer state tournament was missed by the officiating crew. (Nolin Ainsworth | Juneau Empire)
