The Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé girls soccer team lost two tough games at Railbelt Conference rival Colony in Palmer, falling 5-0 on Friday and 2-0 Saturday.
Colony is in second place in the conference, with a 2-1 record, and is 7-4 overall. Wasilla leads the conference at 1-0 and is 8-1 overall. JDHS is currently in fourth at 1-3 in the conference and 4-3 overall. West Valley sits in third and Lathrop fifth.
“We got beat by a player who is just having a great season this year,” JDHS coach Matt Dusenberry said of Knights junior midfielder Avrie Geigerich. “She has something like 17 goals already this season. She had all the goals for them over these two games. She quick, strong and obviously gives herself a solid chance of scoring by putting the ball on frame.”
JDHS did not back down against one of the state’s top teams.
“Today we played really hard as a team, and had moments of some good play and we really limited Avrie today and yet she still got two,” Dusenberry said of Saturday’s game. “Despite a 2-0 loss, the kids really battled hard today. While we didn’t score, there were quite a few moments today that Colony kicked the ball out of bounds just to slow down our pressure and movement forward.”
The team Hard Hat award went to freshman Ayla Erickson.
“She is another freshman coming in and doing really well this season,” Dusenberry said. “She normally starts as the attacking mid for us, but today I moved her back to holding mid and it paid dividends as Geigerich really had to work today to get the ball. Despite playing farther back, Ayla still found the ball for us and mounted several attacks for us too.”
Friday’s Hard Hat award went to junior Alba Muir.
“She took a cleat to the face,” Dusenberry said. “She obviously had to come out to be checked out by the trainers, was cleared to come back in and played 10 or so minutes later.”
JDHS will host West Anchorage at 5:15 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. Saturday at Adair Kennedy Memorial Park.
Dusenberry noted some key standouts over the weekend.
“We continue to be pleasantly surprised with how Ayla, Zoe (Tagsip, freshman) and Marigold (Lindoff, freshman) are just coming in and playing at the varsity level as freshmen this year. Kenzie Simonson (junior) is doing an incredible amount of running as a wingback – she got the Hard Hat against Houston, but honestly her work rate continued in all three games this weekend. Natalie (Travis, senior) continues to give us a strong defensive presence no matter if I put her in her natural center-back position or up into holding mid. Peyton Wheeler (junior) up front battled not only on the offensive side for us, but also nipped at the heels of their back line to win the ball back for us. I thought Riley Schultz (sophomore) had a great work rate today getting up and down the pitch in the middle with Ayla…Now we look forward to hosting West Anchorage.”
