Three Anchorage teams join West Valley in girls soccer semifinals

Service's Savannah Nichols channeled her inner Clint Dempsey to score in the first minute of the match of her team's 4-1 win over Kenai in Thursday's opening round of the state soccer tournament.

Dempsey famously scored a goal for the United States 29 seconds into a World Cup match against Ghana in 2014. Nichols needed just 20 seconds to score against Kenai.

"I like the way we started out," Service coach Mark Cascolan said. "We started out really, really quick. We scored within the first minute. That's always a good start.

"We were able to possess the ball, move around a little bit and, more importantly, keep everybody healthy."

It was a day of lopsided wins, with Anchorage teams winning three of the four matches.

West Valley clobbered Colony 7-0, Dimond rolled past Wasilla 5-1 and West blanked Juneau 4-0.

Kenai halted Service's momentum briefly when Olivia Brewer scored on the Kardinals' only shot on target in the first half.

Service responded with three quick goals late in the half, including one by Nichols, who scored again on a long goal from the right to the opposite corner of the net.

A minute later, senior Madasin Jennings flew into the box for her first goal of the game. She scored again five minutes later to give Service a 4-1 halftime lead.

The Cougars maintained the lead through the second half.

"I think we played great and we definitely played our game, kept it on the ground and worked really well together," Jennings said.

In Friday's semifinals, Service will take on CIC rival West and West Valley will face Dimond.

Allison Schafer scored two first-half goals to power Dimond, which led 3-0 at the break against Wasilla.

Also scoring for the Lynx were Kelsey Judd, Malia Lyken and Alexis Friessen.

Dimond will try to cool off a hot West Valley team that racked up five goals in the first half against Colony. West Valley's Kiara Simpson provided a hat trick to help the Wolf Pack built their early lead.

West Valley was the state runner-up last year.

"We've just been working really hard in Fairbanks," Simpson said. "We've been running a ton, and we've been playing every game in Fairbanks like it's a tournament. So we came here and we were able to get tons of people to score."

ASAA/First National Bank
Girls state soccer championships
Thursday's first round
Dimond 5, Wasilla 1
West Valley 7, Colony 0
West 4, Juneau 0
Service 4, Kenai 1
Friday's games
Semifinals at Service High
Noon — Dimond vs. West Valley
4 p.m. — West vs.Service
Consolation games at Eagle River
Noon — Wasilla vs. Colony
4 p.m. — Juneau vs. Kenai