Crimson Bears fall in soccer state tournament semifinal

It will be a game the Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé soccer boys can look back on and be proud of their efforts, but for now it will hurt.

A 3-2 loss in extra time on Friday to the West Anchorage Eagles in the ASAA/First National Bank Soccer State Championships semifinals.

“I think, right now obviously I’m pretty upset about it,” JDHS senior Kai Ciambor said. “Because the end goal is to always win the state championship. But I think we can reflect on this game pretty positively. The team rallied. We went down 2-0 really early, and it is easy to kind of get down and feel like you are out of the game. But we stepped up, we brought it back, we took it all the way to the end which is something we should be proud of, but not the result we wished for.”

With the game just over a minute into action West Anchorage senior Noah Robinson struck a shot that gave the Eagles a huge burst of momentum and a 1-0 advantage.

“Definitely we wanted to win at all means,” Robinson said. “We thought we were the better team and just had to go out and prove it…The state tournament is all the hard work you put in all year round put into the last three games. There are games at the start of the year and the middle of the year that are important, but these ones at the end are the ones that really mean the most.”

Although JDHS could not find the net they had numerous chances and free kicks, and their defense continued to be one of the stronger in the tournament.

“It hurts to lose, especially this close to the state championship,” JDHS senior Reed Maier said. “And with West Valley going to the state championship and us beating them three times it feels so much closer than it did, but I feel like we all had a good game. We all played hard and it was a good way to go out overall.”

Maier was selected the Player of the Game for the Crimson Bears, one of the many memories he will take away from the season.

“Oh man a lot of things,” Maier said. “This is a great group of people, so much fun all the trips have been awesome and it has really just helped me grow as a person.”

West junior Luca Driscoll was the Eagles Player of the Game. Among his many highlights was a shot from 25 yards out that rose over the JDHS keeper and made the score 2-0 with two minutes left in the first half.

“It feels good,” Driscoll said. “It was not just me it was the whole team’s effort. The team worked very hard, it was a good game from everyone…It as a nice evening to play soccer…I feel we are very connected as a team. We all fight for each other, we all play for the badge…Juneau was a good matchup, they played very hard. We expected them to as well because we went down there and beat them so it was good they came out with a fight in this game.”

JDHS came out of halftime as if awakened from a healthy slumber and began to immediately forage for goals and shots just missed and rebounds were knocked away by West.

With 64 minutes elapsed in the game Ciambor blasted a shot that the West keeper Gideon Plikat covered. Roughly 10 minutes later JDHS senior Caden Haygood drilled a shot from 20 yards out to pull the Crimson Bears to within one goal.

And in stoppage time, with their season looking bleak, Ciambor was brought down and awarded a penalty kick which he converted to time the game at 2-2.

“I think this year, compared to all the other years we just collectively love each other as a team,” Ciambor said. “I don’t think I can name two people who dislike each other in this program. Everybody is basically a family and we all just enough each other’s company and I think that goes a long way in a team sport like this.”

Neither team could break the deadlock and two 10-minute extra sessions began. In the first JDHS’ Haygood and senior Ahmir Parker both had chances to score. Haygood missed the target wide just a minute in and Parker drilled a nice corner kick into the West box that was cleared out.

In the second extra time session Maier put a free kick into the box, Ciambor had a shot blocked and Reed hit another free kick into the scrum in front of the West goal, but it was cleared out.

With just five minutes left in the stanza West’s Robinson scored on a free kick that squirted through numerous defenders for the 3-2 score.

JDHS fought back but ran out of time. Ciambor had a free kick with under a minute remaining and connected a ball to Maier but the shot just missed.

“I am proud of how we played,” senior Owen Rumsey said. “That was definitely our best game all season. Especially the fight in the last 10-20 minutes. I felt that was the best I have ever seen this team play in all my four years. I’m proud of that. I think, obviously it is unfortunate that we went out but I’m proud of what we’ve been able to do here, our first year in DI and a successful run at it. Stuff like this happens. It is sad to go out your senior year without making it to the final but, playing for third place, I’m excited.”

JDHS will face Colony in the third/fifth-place game at 1:15 p.m. Saturday at Colony High School in a matchup of the pre-tournament favorites.

“The tournament is not over,” JDHS coach Gary Lehnhart said. “It is always hard when your chance to win it is over but I couldn’t be prouder of the effort, to be down two goals and not to give up. In a lot of ways this team was inexperienced. So where they started and how they ended is pretty impressive. Today was just the next major step forward for them to battle back like they did, so close. We had a header there at the end that could have tied it up. We played virtually everybody, subbing five guys and every one of them played hard and played well. I couldn’t be happier. I know for them it is hard because they feel like they could have won, and they could have. They were just as deserving as any of the teams that are going to be in the finals.”

Instead West advances to play West Valley — a 2-0 winner over No. 1 seed Colony — in the championship game at 6:30 p.m. Saturday at Wasilla High School. JDHS had beaten their Railbelt Conference foe West Valley three times this season.

“I think back to what could have been,” Lehnhart said. “If we hadn’t lost guys like Noah (Ault), Jesper (Bennetson) and others to injury, but we next-man-upped it and I’m really proud of the guys that finished it off. It is pretty hard for me to be discouraged. I get to come back, and I’ve done this many times, so I am more into how hard and how well they played. But for them I’m sad because it is nice to be in the final and they played well enough to be in the final.”

• Contact Klas Stolpe at [email protected].