JDHS boys pitched 7-1 by West Anchorage

The Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé boys soccer team did not respond as heartily Saturday as West Anchorage after both sides played to a 1-1 tie Friday at Adair Kennedy Memorial Park, and the Crimson Bears suffered a 7-1 loss to the Eagles.

“It came crashing down,” JDHS coach Gary Lehnhart said. “When things are going well it is pretty easy to be happy and energetic…but some things bounced the other way and we didn’t respond. In fact, we did worse than that.”

West were the aggressors from the start and JDHS played back on their heels.

Eagles junior Adoum Abakar put the first shot on frame and Crimson Bears sophomore keeper Erik Thompson covered it but soon after Eagles junior Musa Marrah scored for a 1-0 lead.

West junior Zane Larsen hit a corner that JDHS senior Ahmir Parker headed clear. That started a small Crimson Bears run that ended with senior Kai Ciambor rocketing a shot off a defender resulting in a JDHS corner, and then a JDHS throw-in and a shot high by senior Owen Rumsey.

West junior Luca Driscoll would hit inside the netting to the right of the JDHS keeper from 15 yards out for a 2-0 lead.

A JDHS free kick opportunity from Parker was shut down by West, and they would carry the next four attacking moments with a shot by Marrah and corners by Larsen and Abakar and another score from five yards out by Driscoll in a scrum pushed the lead to 3-0.

“It was a hard game,” West’s Driscoll said. “They were talking a lot of smack at some points so we just had to stay in it and hold our own, and we did a great job scoring seven goals. Our intensity was there the whole game, everyone was really trying…We are all just playing the game so it’s all for fun. I mean, yeah, it’s good to have it be competitive, but at the end of the day we are all just competing out there so we all have to be a little bit nice to each other and supportive…This road trip was hard. We flew out on Tuesday night and have played every day.”

JDHS had more opportunities before the half ended. Ciambor put one over the top of the box, sophomore Sam Mazon missed wide and Parker put two corners on the pitch.

JDHS stayed competitive on the defensive end, and junior Noah Ault earned the team’s Lunch Pail Award.

“I just brought the energy,” Ault said. “We were pretty low after going down 3-0 in the first half, and I kind of wanted to switch it up and put the energy in the team. We kind of did fall down, kind of got down on each other but we still pushed through and finished the game out, which was pretty good.”

JDHS coaches credit Ault for playing this same way all season and one he trains his body for.

“Soccer is just pretty fun,” Ault said. “I mean, yes, kids get injured here and just kind of have to work through it, but for me stretching really helps. Obviously you’re going to need a stretch because you get super sore after a game if you put 100% into it. So I’m just taking the time to ‘do you’ and make sure you feel safe or feel ready to play. I take care of myself all the time…from running a mile to get all the lactic acid out to stretching and massage.”

Ault said the Crimson Bears will bounce back.

“Yeah, it was a win-or-lose game,” he said. “But knowing that we still have more games coming up on the road, we’re ready to play, ready for what we’ve got.”

JDHS had a bright moment at the start of the second half with Ciambor earning a penalty kick to trail 3-1 and then placing a nice cross that just missed connecting. But West would continue to push forward and find goals from Driscoll, senior Noah Robinson, Marrah and sophomore Griffin Cain.

“We will turn this into a good learning exercise,” coach Lehnhart said. “We set ourselves up nice record-wise so it doesn’t really do us much harm, doesn’t do us any harm in conference. So really it is more about the mental makeup of the team and, you know, some things got exposed. It’s my job to help try to figure that out and their job to hopefully respond to what’s broken because there were some things broken today. But mostly I’m just concerned with guys staying together and learning from this. We are, in a lot of ways, a really inexperienced team and it showed today.”

West left Anchorage Tuesday night after losing to South 2-1, defeated Ketchikan Wednesday 3-1 and Thursday 3-0 — and playing two JV games as well — and tied with JDHS 1-1 Friday.

“This has been quite the journey for the boys,” West coach Kaleb Kuehn said. “A lot of minutes traveling and taking care of the body…It has been a process and a journey for these guys in building all the things to come together and the pieces are finally fell into place today and that showed with the score line, result, effort and the hard work that they put on the field…I totally respect Juneau. When we came in here, honestly, I was a little on my heels unsure on how it was going to go.”

The top four teams in the CIC go to state and the top three in the Rail Belt Conference. One at-large bid is awarded to state as well, so games against opposite conferences are crucial for strength of schedule rankings.

“What I always tell my players is you have to control your own destiny,” Kuehn said. “That’s one of the most important pieces to me…you are not letting other people or teams dictate your destiny.”

JDHS leads the Railbelt Conference with a 2-0-2 record (5-1-3 overall), Colony is 1-1-2 (10-1-2), Wasilla 1-1-1 (7-3-3), West Valley 1-2-1 (4-3-1) and Lathrop 0-1 (3-2).

West is currently fifth in the Cook Inlet Conference at 3-2 (6-2-1 overall). Chugiak leads the CIC at 4-1 (4-2 overall), Dimond 3-1 (6-2), South 4-2 (4-3), Service 3-2 (3-4-1), Bettye Davis East 2-3 (2-4), Bartlett 1-4 (1-9) and Eagle River 0-5 (0-8).

“I think the biggest thing is we lost our mojo way too fast,” Lehnhart said. “Things have been going so well for us that I think today it didn’t and we lost track of that so fast, so that’s a concern. And when you start playing with an attitude of negativity and not trusting your teammates and your skills, then things really go sideways. And they did. There were a few minutes in the second half where we tried to respond and I think if we would have gotten that second goal it probably would have been different but, you know, that is part of it. And that’s soccer. It is so hard to score that when that doesn’t happen you can’t give up…It is all about playing the same whether you are winning or losing, keeping the same energy, holding each other accountable but also being positive with each other, all of that.”

Lehnhart replied “yes” when asked if that is why soccer is called the beautiful game.

The Crimson Bears host the non-conference Soldotna Stars at 7:15 p.m. Thursday.

• Contact Klas Stolpe at klas.stolpe@juneauempire.com.