Call it the week of attrition.
The Juneau-Douglas High School boys and girls soccer teams each played four games in five days this past week.
The Crimson Bears girls started the week with a 1-1 tie against Thunder Mountain before taking on non-conference Service, Chugiak and Wasilla in the days to come. JDHS lost to Service 4-0 on Wednesday, coasted by Chugiak 2-0 on Thursday, before leaving it all on the field in a 1-0 win against Wasilla Friday evening.
Against Wasilla, Malia Miller scored her third goal of the week just eight minutes in to the game from Brianna Jokerst. The tally would stand as the difference-maker through the remaining 70 minutes as the Crimson Bears showed no quit.
“I mean some of our girls were just exhausted, sore, tired and they had to collectively grind it out to keep the score at 0,” JDHS coach Matt Dusenberry said. “So I thought today’s game they showed a lot of heart.”
According to Dusenberry, Wasilla and JDHS are rivals with one another. Two years ago, the Warriors knocked the Crimson Bears out of the state tournament in the waning moments of the game.
“Some of them remember the dog fights we had we Wasilla,” Dusenberry said. “The seniors can remember that they worked so hard and then the goal went in versus Wasilla.”
Malia Miller and Brianna Jokerst scored in a 2-0 win Thursday against Chugiak of the Cook Inlet Conference.
“We didn’t put away as many as we should have,” Dusenberry said of the game with Chugiak.
JDHS had a little trouble adjusting to the narrower Ed Blahous Field in Chugiak, which has approximately 10 yards skinnier than Adair-Kennedy.
“It’s hard to find a flow when both teams are kicking the ball out of bounds a lot,” Dusenberry said. “You’re stopping and going quite a bit.”
After dropping their first game to Service 3-1, the Crimson Bears boys team followed in the footsteps of the girls, taking the next two games. JDHS won over Chugiak 5-1 before replicating the outcome against Wasilla. Coach Gary Lehnhart said his team’s focus improved drastically from their game against Service to the one against Chugiak.
“You could see the difference just in the warm up,” Lehnhart said.
Just two minutes into the match, Ben Undurraga scored from Sherrod Miller.
Chugiak would score shortly afterwards, but JDHS remained confident at halftime with the game tied 1-1.
JJ Mosher scored from Undurraga two minutes into the second half, Ben Carter scored a couple minutes later, and just like that the Crimson Bears put the game out of reach.
“Once it happened, it began to happen a lot,” Lehnhart said of the scoring.
Bryson Mitchell would scored twice more before the night was up.
On Friday against Wasilla, Undurraga scored a hat trick in the first half as JDHS ran away with the game, 5-1.
The team faced Dimond Saturday morning.
• Contact sports reporter Nolin Ainsworth at 523-2272 or nolin.ainsworth@juneauempire.com.
