The Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé Crimson Bears varsity soccer teams opened their road trip to Fairbanks on Thursday with the girls earning a 2-1 win over the Lathrop Malemutes and the boys defeating Lathrop, 7-0.
The girls needed the win to stay in the race for one of the three state tournament berths from the Railbelt Conference.
“I would say we were the aggressors as far as winning quite a bit of the balls and putting shots on frame,” JDHS girls coach Matt Dusenberry said. “We certainly gave ourselves an opportunity to continue to work on our season and have something to play for.”
Wasilla currently leads the girls’ RBC with a 4-1 record (13-3 overall), with Colony second at 5-2 (11-5 OA), Lathrop third at 3-4 (7-5 OA), JDHS 2-3 (5-5-1 OA) and West Valley 2-6 (4-7). Four teams earn berths from the Cook Inlet Conference, and one at-large berth is selected from the two conferences as well. All state qualifiers are then seeded by strength of schedule.
JDHS junior Peyton Wheeler scored both goals for the Crimson Bears.
Wheeler scored in the first half on an assist from junior Kenzie Simonson.
“We played the ball out from the back line on a great diagonal pass from Kenzie,” Dusenberry said. “It turned their backs and Peyton picked up the diagonal ball and turned in on the keeper and put it away nicely.”
Lathrop tied the game 15 minutes into the second half. JDHS believed the throw in that led to the goal was illegal as the player left their feet on the throw, which would have given possession to the Crimson Bears.
“We respectfully asked for a different consideration on things,” Dusenberry said of the goal. “That usually should be a change of possession and our throw but they didn’t see it, then the ball bobbles around and their girls just kind of put it in the box and it was enough to get in. You don’t get every call.”
Seven minutes later, Wheeler gave the lead back to JDHS on a play similar to her first tally. This time senior Milina Mazon found the ball wide and stretched the Lathrop defense out and played a nice ball into space for Wheeler to outrun a Lathrop centerback and tuck it in past the Malemutes keeper.
Senior Natalie Travis earned the Crimson Bears’ Hard Hat Award for her defense, especially in the second half, when she marked numerous Lathrop attackers and cleared the possible game-tying goal as time expired.
“We have tomorrow to play, but we certainly have opportunities to control our own destiny rather than rely on other people,” Dusenberry said. “So we are pretty excited. It was a little bit of a nail-biter towards the end as we had tired legs. Juneau weather has been cold and wet for months and we just came to sunny and 60 degrees and a dryness…So we were a little tired towards the end and maybe hung legs when we should have just gone to the tackle. Instead of stepping into the tackle we hung our legs out, resulting in fouls. Unfortunately, our hanging legs caught them so there were a couple free kicks where their centerback (freshman Emmy Eddy), who can kick the ball half the field on a dead ball, hit balls we had to fight off and get cleared off the line…and on the last play of the game it looked like it was going to go in and Natalie got her head on it and cleared it out of the line and the referee called the game…We really played well today.”
Thursday’s games have not been factored in yet to the current Alaska School Activities Association (ASAA) soccer Division I girls RPI — or strength of schedule — rankings. The top 10 are Dimond (CIC), Wasilla (RBC), South Anchorage (CIC), Service (CIC), Colony (RBC), Chugiak (CIC), Lathrop (RBC), West Anchorage (CIC), West Valley (RBC) and JDHS. CIC’s Bartlett, Eagle River and East Anchorage are out of contention.
Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé senior Kai Ciambor (14) shown in this file photo scoring last week against Soldotna, scored three goals Thursday in the Crimson Bears 7-0 win over Lathrop at Fairbanks. JDHS plays at Lathrop again Friday and at West Valley Saturday. (Klas Stolpe / Juneau Empire file photo)
The JDHS boys moved to the top of the RBC and now own a 3-0-2 record (7-1-3 overall). Colony is second at 4-1-2 RBC (13-1-2 OA), West Valley 4-3-1 (7-4-1 OA), Wasilla 2-2-1 (9-5-3 OA) and Lathrop 0-7 (4-7 OA).
“We rolled,” JDHS boys coach Gary Lehnhart said of the Crimson Bears blank sheet.
JDHS senior Kai Ciambor scored three goals in the game and assisted on the opening Crimson Bears score. Two minutes into play, Ciambor sent a corner kick into the Lathrop box and senior Kellen Chester blasted it home.
“We have really been working hard on those so that was nice to see,” Lehnhart said.
Roughly 10 minutes later, senior Ahmir Parker scored on a crossing pass from senior Owen Rumsey.
Sophomore Sam Mazon won a ball in a scrum and trickled it out to senior Caden Haygood, who hit a hard shot that the keeper couldn’t handle and Haygood had his first varsity goal for a 3-0 tally.
Mazon earned the Crimson Bears Lunch Pail Award for that assist.
“There was one moment in the first half on the goal that Caden scored, and I told the guys at halftime, that really stood out to me,” Lehnhart said. “Sam made a play, a really good hustle play, to just win a ball that he had no business winning. In a place he could have said, ‘Oh, this isn’t even going to matter, I have no chance,’ and he goes in there, wins the ball, it rolls out and Caden takes this shot and it goes in. Those are the things that make a difference. And that is what we are trying to do, trying to play a lot of people, trying to get everybody to play at a faster, higher level and then being willing to rest and being willing to sub. The only way that works is if people buy in and are willing to go out of the game and let somebody else come in and hopefully that means everybody plays at a higher level.”
Ciambor scored the next two goals before the first half ended.
Lehnhart said he enjoyed the first because junior Fixx Siner was wide open with the ball and had a chance for a shot.
“He could have easily tried to score himself, but Kai was even more open and he tapped it for an easy goal for Kai,” Lehnhart said. “So that was really unselfish.”
Ciambor’s third goal was just before the half ended on a cross from freshman Bryce Haygood for a 5-0 lead at the break.
Ten minutes into the second half, JDHS senior Reed Maier crossed a ball into Haygood for 6-0 and junior Emmett Mesdag crossed a ball into Ciambor at the 66th minute for 7-0.
Interestingly, due to strength of schedule, JDHS and Colony would switch in state tournament eight-team rankings if the tourney started tomorrow because of the number of RPI games played.
Current RPI DI boys top 10 rankings are Colony (RBC), West Anchorage (CIC), JDHS (RBC), West Valley (CIC), Dimond (CIC), Service (CIC), Wasilla (RBC), South Anchorage (CIC), Chugiak (CIC) and Lathrop (RBC). CIC’s East Anchorage, Bartlett and Eagle River are out of contention.
“Apparently all that winning the conference gives you is an automatic seed,” Lehnhart said. “But it doesn’t give you the number (1-8). Right now we are the third seed. So a team in our conference, who we are actually ahead of in conference, is actually the No. 1 seed…It’s interesting that three teams at the top of our conference are also at the top of the RPI…Winning the conference is not to be downplayed, but we need to keep winning. But honestly, if you look at the scores on the boys side there is a lot of parity. The three teams atop our conference are pretty even and the Anchorage grouping is pretty tight so I think you can make the argument that 1-7 there is very little difference.”
Lehnhart said the Crimson Bears played the right way, not looking past a team they should defeat and not being selfish on the pitch.
“You worry about places having the mindset of being the guy that wants to score instead of making the right play,” he said. “And I just felt like we just kept making the right play, unselfishly. Many, many times guys could have easily tried to score themselves but instead were passing. That made me happy to see that they were really trying to play the right way.”
Lehnhart also appreciated how his players reacted to a red card called against an opponent.
“Their player got a red card and it was deserved and we just handled it really well,” Lehnhart said. “And the ref told me after the game that as well. You always like hearing that about your players, that it is being noticed by officials and other teams that we are playing the right way.”
Lehnhart noted the continued team play in replacing injured junior defenders Noah Ault and Jesper Bennetsen.
Sophomore keeper Erik Thompson continued adjusting well from keeper to defender, and senior Elliot Welch continues to start alongside in the back. Also notable is freshman keeper Callen Walker, earning his second clean slate in as many starts. The additions are made smoothly by the prowess of the players starting in front of them and those rotating in.
“We’ve had these injuries and were really at a crossroads last week and got the good play at the back with Erik and Elliot and a freshman coming in to play goalkeeper,” Lehnhart said. “We still have a ways to go and it is definitely going to hurt us when these games get into the state tournament. We are definitely going to miss those guys. But the other guys have stepped up and it looks like we are going to give ourselves a chance and that’s a good testament to those kids — from sitting and watching to now having to play — and they are playing well.”
The boys and girls played at the same time on adjacent fields.
“We finished about five minutes before they did so we were able to go and cheer for them,” Lehnhart said. “They had an exciting game. It was fun for the boys to cheer the girls on there.”
Both teams play Lathrop again Friday and West Valley on Saturday. The Wolfpack boys are a team that will threaten the JDHS box and defensive back.
“These are RPI games,” Lehnhart said. “So they matter.”
• Contact Klas Stolpe at klas.stolpe@juneauempire.com.
