JDHS soccer girls play for pride and for the seniors

Play for pride and for the seniors.

That was the message Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé girls soccer coach Matt Dusenberry gave to the Crimson Bears girls as they took to the Adair-Kennedy Memorial Park pitch on Friday and senior-night Saturday against the Railbelt Conference-leading Wasilla Warriors.

Saturday was an emotional contest as 13 high school players would have their last opportunity to play in front of friends and family. Before the game, seniors Adelyn Buss, Priscilla Lam, Ella Orsborn, Natalie Travis, Milina Mazon, Lola Hines, Parker Boman, Dori Germain, Lena Field, Alison Tingey, Mary Canapary, Alyssa Lawhorne and Daniela Lamas were honored with their friends and family by having teammates share a short speech and present them with gifts.

“Recognizing the moment, we were able to get 24 players into the game today and every one of them put in valuable minutes for the team,” Dusenberry said. “Smiles, laughter and even tears occurred in the bench area as the game went on, making for a memorable end to the season.”

JDHS did not find the opponent’s net in the game, but battled to the end with each senior being cheered. Some of the loudest encouragement came from classmates and teammates of Lamas when she played her first varsity minutes and continued through the final seconds as seniors exited the pitch.

“It meant a lot being my senior year,” Orsborn said. “Playing for JD was nice, it was fun.”

Travis earned the team’s Hard Hat Award for the game.

“Natalie has been a leader by example all year for us, playing hard on the field,” Dusenberry said. “But off the field doing things like: making sure we recognize people’s birthdays, reminding us about the schedule, game-day uniform reminders and even deciding our local sports writer needed a card and gift at our senior night!”

Travis said, “To be honest, I only heard Matt explain a little bit of it but basically…being a captain is both on and off the field. So off the field I try to make it so we have a lot of fun. So something we started last year, if someone has a birthday, I’ll buy a card and bring it here and have everyone sign it and give it to them with candy…I also text in our group chat a lot, and one of our freshmen, Zoe, reacts with like a thousand emojis…So basically I think it was for all the work I’ve done on and off the field this season so I think that is why I got it. But I was too busy crying to really listen.”

The dream of a state tournament game had been dashed early in the week as JDHS needed the Colony Knights to defeat Wasilla and then the Crimson Bears would hold their own destiny in the two final home games at ADMP.

When Colony tied Wasilla 1-1, JDHS needed to sweep the Warriors and hope for an at-large bid. Instead, the Crimson Bears played their hearts out in two tough losses, falling Friday 3-2 and Saturday 3-0.

“We all got really close and we all turned into a big family,” Lam said. “The season didn’t end well for us, but we made good memories and we really fought for it.”

Canapary said, “I think that obviously it was going to be new because we were combining and making an adjustment, but I think everyone would agree that we all had a lot of fun together. It’s been hard for us being our senior season and it didn’t turn out like we wanted, but this is my favorite team I have ever played with.”

On Friday, JDHS junior Peyton Wheeler played a fantastic ball into space for sophomore Riley Schultz to run on and finish under a diving Wasilla keeper in the 25th minute for a 1-0 lead

In the 58th minute, freshman Ayla Erickson played a ball to Mazon, who attacked the wing and Erickson ran into space in the center and received the ball back from Mazon and struck a shot from 30 yards out that nestled into the top corner of Wasilla’s net for a 2-0 lead.

“The game was back and forth for most of the match,” Dusenberry said. “But for 70 minutes we kept them out of the net. Several goal line scrambles almost saw our lead increase.”

In the 69th minute, Wasilla was awarded a penalty kick due to a hand ball that occurred on a corner kick and cut the lead to 2-1.

“They had a corner, we cleared the first kick, but not far enough and Wasilla immediately shot on frame and unfortunately our player on the post meant to help cover corners was found by the ref to have handled the ball when they stopped the second shot,” Dusenberry said.

In the 77th minute, Wasilla was awarded a free kick about 30 yards out and tied the game at 2-2.

“The ref felt our pressure was too aggressive from behind and gave a yellow card and a free kick,” Dusenberry said. “The kick taken cleared our wall and dipped down and tucked into the bottom corner just under Alba’s (junior keeper Alba Muir) hands.”

In the 80th minute, Wasilla had a corner and in an attempt to clear, JDHS scored an own goal giving Wasilla the 3-2 score.

“We still had a couple opportunities to score and even hit the post at the end of the game,” Dusenberry said. “Soccer can be cruel at times. Really believe the kids deserved to win this one.”

Erickson was given the Crimson Bears Hard Hat Award for playing while under the weather.

“I think it was pretty cool how we all got together, both schools, and in the end we were one team,” JDHS’ Mazon said. “And we might not have won together but we played together. It’s OK what happened, but…I just hope all of them still have the love for the game that I do.”

Dusenberry said 59 kids came out for the soccer program this season.

“I truly appreciate each and every one of them for coming out and playing,” he said. “Despite not having every school bring a JV team to play us, we were still able to get needed matches for all of the kids, with varsity playing 16 matches, and JV getting 25 matches (some versus high school teams, and some against our local Juneau Soccer Club teams). I greatly appreciate having Phil Subeldia, Martin Morris, Kristen Wells, Cindy Eriksen and Lindsey Kato in supporting the kids and program this season as well.”

Travis said the seniors were sad playing their final game.

“We’ve grown up together,” she said. “All of us, even people who previously went to TM (Thunder Mountain), we all grew up playing soccer together so it was just sad that this was the last time we were going to be doing it together.”

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