Sports

South boys use penalty kicks to advance to state soccer semifinals

The game was running an hour over schedule, two overtimes had come and gone, players were cramping since late in the second half of regulation and South had a former JV goalkeeper in the goal.

Freshman keeper Juan Ponce de Leon, who had stopped two consecutive attempts by Juneau once the game went to a shootout, needed one last save to seal a victory for the Wolverines.

Juneau's James Cheng wound up for the kick, smashed it fast to the right and Ponce de Leon dove out for the game-clinching save.

With that, the South boys defeated Juneau 4-3 in Thursday's opening round of the state soccer tournament at Service High. The Wolverines rushed Ponce de Leon to celebrate the win.

"I just wanted to save it," Ponce de Leon said. "It feels great. I want to win state."

All of Thursday's boys games were close. West beat Soldotna 3-1 in a game that was tied 1-1 at the half, Kenai edged Colony 2-1 and Service got past West Valley 4-2 in overtime.

The South and Juneau game was a defensive battle all the way. Both teams struggled to get off good shots and when they did, Ponce de Leon and Juneau's Hunter Pegues were there to make diving saves.

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South finally got on the scoreboard with 10 minutes remaining in the first half after Britton Clifford played Andrew DePaepe into the box and Pegues had to foul DePaepe. South's Talon Stanley scored on the ensuing penalty kick.

"Andrew did his thing, cut in really fast (and) the keeper had to take him down," Stanley said. "All the credit goes to Andrew. I just passed it into the net."

Juneau responded in the final minute of the half when the ball bounced out to JJ Moser, who nailed a goal from just outside the box to even the score 1-1.

From there, the game remained tied through the second half, through the first overtime of two 10-minute halves and through the sudden-death overtime of two five-minute halves.

Fatigue and cramps set in as the players continued to play on a warm, sunny day.

"It felt like we were running in a sauna or something," Stanley said. "It was so hot. We didn't expect it to be that hot, but everyone kept working as hard as they could.

"Everyone's legs were tired, but (coach Mike Montgomery) has us run a lot at practice, so we were kinda ready for that."

In the penalty shootout, South's Noah Johnson, Mason Keffalos and Adam Skelton scored.

Oswaldo Magallanes and Garrett Mayer scored on the first two attempts for Juneau before Ponce de Leon saved the remaining three.

Ponce de Leon started the season on the JV squad before moving up to varsity for the seventh game of the season. Now he's a mainstay in goal for the Wolverines.

"He's incredible," Stanley said. "All season he's been working extremely hard. He's slowly worked his way up.

"He started out in JV, then got brought up to varsity and then (we) realized he's an insane keeper and we put him in the net."

South's victory puts the Wolverines in Friday's semifinals, where South will face West in an all-Cook Inlet Conference semifinal.

Morgan Smith scored a pair of goals to help West get past Soldotna.

Smith gave the Eagles a 1-0 lead but Soldotna scored seconds before halftime to tie things up.

Grayson Adams put the Eagles back in the lead with a second-half penalty kick. Smith provided insurance with his second goal.

"It was very stressful going into the second half since we were tied 1-1," Smith said. "But we managed to pull it out in the last few minutes, and that's what it's all about."

ASAA/First National Bank
Boys state soccer championships
Thursday's first round
South 4, Juneau 3 (penalty kicks)
West 3, Soldotna 1
Kenai 2, Colony 1
Service 4, West Valley 2
Friday's games
Semifinals at Service High
2 p.m. — South vs. West
6 p.m. — Kenai vs. Service
Consolation games at Eagle River
2 p.m. — Juneau vs. Soldotna
6 p.m. — Colony vs. West Valley

Stephan Wiebe

Stephan Wiebe writes about all things Alaska sports.

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