Crimson Bears eat Kings for pre-senior night pitch feast

The Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé boys soccer team defeated the Ketchikan Kings 4-2 Friday at Adair-Kennedy Field and can claim the Region V title with another victory on Saturday.

“I think both teams will qualify for state,” JDHS coach Gary Lehnhart said. “I think our conference is regarded as the best in small schools.”

JDHS controlled possession early, had numerous shots by all-state junior Kai Ciambor and classmate Ahmir Parker just missed the mark, and Ketchikan kept a physical play throughout.

JDHS’ Parker was awarded a penalty kick with three minutes remaining in the first half and calmly rocketed the ball into the corner past the Kayhi keeper.

“It was a big goal,” Parker said. “You know the rivalry between us and Kayhi has gone back way before me and way before anybody else on this team. This week we have been going kind of light and practicing a lot of penalties and on the first day I picked my spot and I just have been practicing that all week. I knew once I stepped up to that spot I was confident I could put it away.”

Kayhi was poised to earn a win on the road and the Kings struck back in extra time as Kelvin Jiang found the net to tie the score at 1-1.

JDHS started the second half with Parker putting a corner kick to the Kayhi goal mouth and junior Kellen Chester heading it in for a 2-1 advantage.

“We all just have spots to be in and I was there and it was just a perfect ball delivered in by Ahmir,” Chester said. “I just put it in. Pretty simple.”

Kayhi would again even the score as wing Richard Evison touched a shot in for 2-2.

With just 11 minutes remaining in the match freshman Sam Mazon found the ball in a rebound scrum and touched it in for a 3-2 lead.

“It was pretty exciting,” Mazon said. “It got us up by two and it felt really good and got us all hyped up.”

The Crimson Bears would not allow the Kings to get the momentum again and JDHS’ Ciambor found an opening to blast a shot through the field with five minutes remaining for the 4-2 final.

“This was a big one for us,” Ciambor said. “Seeding is a big thing for the state tournament and we knew the higher the seeding we could get is better so that was a lot of motivation for this game. We also knew we had to win the energy battle. We have the talent, we have the players, we play together well and we just had to put it all together to win. Another win tomorrow would be amazing.”

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Ciambor earned the team’s “Lunch Pail” award for his energy and play in the first half, lifting the Crimson Bears to match the intensity Kayhi brought to the pitch.

Ketchikan leads the conference with a 5-1-1 record (7-2-2 overall) and JDHS now sits at 5-2 (6-2-2 OA). Both teams will make state, one via winning the conference and the other earning an at-large bid due to strength of schedule. Winning the conference will give a team better seeding in the opening round of the state playoffs. Thunder Mountain (0-7-1 SEC, 2-8-1 OA) has finished their season.

JDHS lost to the Kings at Ketchikan, 4-0 and 3-1, in the second and third games of the season.

“Those were frustrating games,” Lehnhart said before Friday’s match. “They were really early in the season and I challenged the guys afterwards to get better. I think there was a little bit of complacency, sort of an expectancy that we had won two state championships in a row and it was just going to continue. I think we went down there and played like that, like we deserved to win and they beat us. I am really looking forward to seeing our growth. I have really been pleased with the last two or three weeks of practice especially.”

JDHS will honor their senior players Saturday after the varsity’s 2:15 p.m. game.