They carried play for stretches, and chances materialized again and again, piling up, yet the Service Cougars still could not deliver the finishing touch.
This was the scoreless first half of Thursday's opener at the girls state high school soccer championships, and Service glimpsed ample opportunity against Soldotna.
Stars goalkeeper Maddie Kindred parried Madasin Jennings' strong bid. Siri Parker's shot boomed wide left. Haleigh Van Allen, a lethal scorer, couldn't get much zip on a header, was stopped by Kindred on another shot and twice pumped shots over the crossbar. Savannah Nichols' shot clanked off the left post, and Kindred moments later fought off Zoe Bailey's drive off a corner kick.
Finally, though, Service savored success in the second half, getting early goals from Parker and Jennings, and cruising to a 2-0 victory at Bartlett High that booked the Cougars in the semifinals for the third straight season.
Service will face South, a 3-0 opening-round winner over Dimond, in a Friday semifinal at Bartlett at 5 p.m. That will be a rematch of last year's state title match, a 1-0 South win.
The Cook Inlet Conference rivals split a pair of games during the regular season, with the Cougars winning 2-1 in March and South winning by the same score May 4.
Also advancing out of the first round was Kenai, a 3-2 overtime winner against Juneau-Douglas after the Kardinals prevailed on penalty kicks 4-2. West Valley moved on with a 1-0 victory over Wasilla and will play Kenai in a 1 p.m. semifinal Friday at Bartlett.
Service coach Mark Cascolan said he and his staff preached patience at halftime.
"We're a young team, so there are nerves. Not scoring, that builds frustration,'' he said. "But the important thing is we were getting the chances. We just needed to calm down, relax and have a bit of fun.''
Turned out Cougar calm preceded a Service storm.
The Cougars broke through in just the second minute of the second half when Parker, Service's Player of the Game, out-maneuvered Stars defender Alex Ashe, who proved rock for much of the match and earned her team's Player of the Game. Parker ran onto Jennings' through ball and powered a shot past Kindred for a 1-0 lead.
"Soccer, it's kind of a long game,'' said Parker, a junior. "You just have to keep trying and keep trying. Once we get a goal, we usually keep scoring.''
That was the case Thursday, when Parker returned the favor to her teammate and set up Jennings about eight minutes after scoring the opening goal. Parker's crossing pass from the left wing was perfectly paced as Jennings sprinted to the net. With Kindred shuffling to her left, Jennings finessed a shot against the grain, to Kindred's right, and pushed Service's advantage to 2-0.
Service keeper Brianna Linnell held the Stars largely in check. Linnell bagged her ninth shutout in 16 games.
That cushion allowed Cascolan to substitute more freely in the second half on a sunny day and grant some of his principal players more rest in a tournament where ultimate success requires three matches in three days.
The Cougars (13-1-2) are competing in the half of the blind-draw bracket that is being branded the "Group of Death.'' It includes all three Anchorage teams – Service, South and Dimond. That's worth noting because Anchorage teams have earned 10 straight girls state championships – four for South, three for Dimond, two for Service and one for Chugiak – and all but one of the state titles since 1983. Juneau-Douglas in 2004 became the only girls team outside Anchorage to seize a state championship.
Cascolan and Parker both stressed that competing in the stacked side of the draw would make success especially satisfying.
"We needed to look at it as a challenge, not as, "Hey, we have a tough bracket,' '' Parker said.
South 3, Dimond 0
The Wolverines dominated Dimond in their 3-0 quarterfinal win on Thursday at Bartlett.
South benefited from an own goal in the 16th minute when a shot by the Wolverines' Megan Currier glanced off Dimond defender Mia Wilson and past keeper Dru Keizer. Wilson and Currier tangled again on South's second goal when the Wolverines' junior blocked Wilson's hard clearance try directly into the Dimond net to make it 2-0 at the half.
Sofia Velez added South's final score when she put back the rebound of Erin Stuart's free kick.
Reach reporter Doyle Woody at dwoody@alaskadispatch.com, check out his blog at adn.com/hockey-blog and follow him on Twitter at @JaromirBlagr