The Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé Crimson Bears boys played at Railbelt Conference rival Colony in Palmer on Friday and Saturday without falling to the state-ranked Knights.
The JDHS boys played even with one of the state’s best teams, earning a 2-2 tie on Friday and a 1-1 draw on Saturday. JDHS is 5-0-2 overall and leads the Railbelt at 2-0-2. Colony is 9-0-2 overall and 1-0-2 in the Railbelt.
Friday’s game was played on a windy pitch.
The Crimson Bears scored two goals in the first half for the 2-0 lead.
JDHS senior Ahmir Parker crossed a ball in to freshman Bryce Haygood for the first score.
“The second one was a free kick from about 30 yards out,” JDHS coach Gary Lehnhart said. “Kai (senior Kai Ciambor) hit a really beautiful shot.”
Lehnhart said the Knights scored a goal five minutes into the second half, “and then we kind of went back and forth for a while and they scored one late to tie it up.”
In Saturday’s game, the sides went scoreless in the first half and the Crimson Bears lost junior center back Jesper Bennetsen to an unspecified injury.
“So we moved Ahmir back to center back and put Kai up top,” Lehnhart said. “And he got loose on kind of a one-on-one and scored a nice goal to make it 1-0.”
Colony scored at midpoint of the second half on a header.
“A good score by them,” Lehnhart said. “They hit the post a couple of times. We missed a couple shots. Their keeper made a good save on Kai and Erik (JDHS sophomore keeper Erik Thompson) made a nice save to keep the game tied.”
Lehnhart said Colony is considered on of the better teams.
“I think on the boys’ side there’s a lot of parity,” he said. “I guess what I’m surprised (by) is that we seem to be right there with the best and the way we’re playing right now we seem to be playing at that level. So I am pleased with that. I’m surprised how well some of the players that the young kids are playing and some of the kids that didn’t have a lot of experience are really performing well and holding up. We really really well and I was surprised at how well we defended.”
JDHS next hosts West Anchorage, another team considered near the top of the standings. The Eagles are tied with South Anchorage and Chugiak at 3-1 in the Cook Inlet Conference.
JDHS will kick off with West at 7 p.m. Friday and noon Saturday.
“They’re a good challenge for us,” Lehnhart said. “Our kids have really committed to playing. We decided to play a certain style and we rotate a lot of people in. That requires that they play at a high pace and that’s what they’ve been doing. They’ve been selling out, willing to play less minutes and more effectively that kind of pace is paying off as more people are involved and you can do that if people can compete.”
That style also bolsters the soccer culture.
“It really does build a nice culture in the team where the people feel like they matter,” Lehnhart said. “So practices are better because players are engaged and also you can deal with injuries better as well.”
Lehnhart noted that Thompson played well over the weekend.
“We got good goalkeeping,” he said. “It was good for Erik. He got challenged. He got some pretty serious challenges and came up with some nice saves. We had a lot of kids who played well. I think Ahmir deserves some credit because he had to switch from offense to defense and really just we didn’t miss a beat. It always hurts to lose someone of Jesper’s quality. So to have Ahmir be able to step up and have us be just as strong shows his skill. And I think Kellen Chester gave us really good presence in the midfield, he was quite strong. Noah Ault (junior) played really well in the back. Owen (Rumsey, senior), Reed (Maier, senior) and Emmitt (Mesdag, junior) played amazing. Our two freshmen are just surprising, Bryce Haygood and Troy Edgar are playing with so much confidence and skill. Usually you don’t see freshmen that are that composed and trust in their skills like these two are. Really surprised with how well they’ve acclimated. On the boys side, freshmen boys generally, it’s pretty physical and they struggle early on to be able to compete with that but they are doing it. It’s not that I didn’t know they were good players. I knew they were good players, but you just don’t know how they’re going to hold up against a pretty fierce competition. I’ve just been surprised at how well they’ve held up. A lot of our kids are playing well and just the whole team environment was nice to see them come together. Still early, way early in the year, but we’re having fun.”
JDHS had defeated Houston 11-0 to open the road trip on Thursday.
• Contact Klas Stolpe at klas.stolpe@juneauempire.com.
