The Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé Crimson Bears girls and the visiting West Anchorage Eagles girls did not take control of the action across the Adair Kennedy Memorial Park soccer pitch on Friday night, and the result was double goose eggs on the scoreboard, which would have been seen if the broken scoreboard worked.
It was obvious to those attending that the score was 0-0 as both sides seemed to struggle in the rain to find any momentum.
“You probably saw the ball out of bounds a lot for both teams,” JDHS coach Matt Dusenberry said. “And we were just throwing it in and it was going back out of bounds. So there was never a flow for either team whatsoever. And that was a challenge for us.”
Dusenberry acknowledged that junior Kenzie Simonson has continued her season-long standout play as a defender and she also found two shots on goal that just missed and hit a perfect pass into the box to junior forward Peyton Wheeler.
“She just works and works and works,” he said. “She has done a lot of running while playing in that position…and I thought Peyton was working as hard as she could up there. We just struggled with getting better services for her and the same with Milina (senior forward Milina Mazon), we could have had some better opportunities for her. But we kind of got caught in whacking it out of bounds just like they were whacking it out of bounds. I think both teams kind of feel like that wasn’t much of a soccer game.”
Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé junior forward Peyton Wheeler (5) wins a ball against West Anchorage freshman Noora Janjua (24) during the Crimson Bears 0-0 tie with the Eagles on Friday at Adair Kennedy Memorial Park. (Klas Stolpe / Juneau Empire)
While there were not a lot of good chances on goal by either side there still was inspiration found on the pitch, and JDHS sophomore forward Clairee Overson came off the bench and put a couple hard touches on goal and earned the team’s Hard Hat Award.
“Matt said that I had a lot of energy and I went out there just to play,” Overson said. “I just wanted to play. I just wanted to get out there and play. I was just trying to press for all of the balls, like come back if I needed to get the balls, not sit back and watch for them to pass it. Just press right away.”
With under two minutes remaining in the first half, JDHS had a scoring chance as senior Natalie Travis hit a free kick into the West box. But instead the Eagles keeper took the shot and rushed it out, and they had a scoring chance that was marked well by Crimson Bears senior defender Lola Hines.
West would get a jump on the action in the second half with two shots on goal that JDHS junior Alba Muir handled easily and another that she had to readjust to after slipping on the wet turf.
JDHS’ Travis would have a free kick late from 25 yards that went wide and West had two chances on corner kicks with under two minutes remaining, but both were smothered by the Crimson Bears.
The two sides meet again at 10 a.m. Saturday. The JDHS boys will play the West boys at noon.
• Contact Klas Stolpe at klas.stolpe@juneauempire.com.
