South High boys soccer stays hot, avenging season’s sole loss by defeating Colony

Nonconference matchups during the regular season don’t usually garner much anticipation or hype.

However, the second meeting between the South Anchorage and Colony High boys soccer teams on Saturday afternoon was viewed by many as a potential Division I state championship preview.

“There’s going to be six other teams in the playoffs, and we have to go through all of them to make it to the final,” South head coach Brian Lux said. “From the teams that we’ve played, this has been one of our best matchups.”

The reigning state champion Wolverines took care of business against the top-ranked Knights, who were undefeated coming into the game. South won 1-0 to hand Colony its first defeat of the season.

“This was the game,” South junior Matthew Wagner said. “We played them earlier in the season and kind of felt like we didn’t play to our level, so on our home field on our senior night, we really wanted to make a statement — and I think we did.”

With the decisive victory, South avenged its lone loss of the season so far and extended its winning streak to nine in a row. The Wolverines will end the regular season undefeated on home turf, with their final two games coming on the road.

“This is a big win, but we have to keep on going because we have one goal in mind, and that is (winning) state,” Wagner said. “To repeat is the goal this year.”

In the first meeting between the two top title contenders earlier in the season, the Knights got the better of the Wolverines, who said they were still getting acclimated to playing outside instead of in the confines of The Dome sports complex.

“When we played them the first, we hadn’t even been really able to be outside and train on turf,” Lux said. “I think that made a big difference — just being able to do some things in bigger spaces.”

Wagner’s twin brother and fellow starter Michael was out for the game due to injury, and the team relied on Matthew Wagner to step up his game even more. He delivered with the lone goal of the afternoon.

“Kyle Fischer sent it in and Tate (Metrokin) got a deflection that the defender wasn’t ready for, so I just brought it down with my chest and tried to put it on frame, and it went in,” Wagner said.

He had other great chances, but one of his shots bounced off the crossbar and another was stopped on a clutch save from Knights goalkeeper Brendan Heck.

Wagner “has been our leading scorer this season and an absolute terror out on the wing, and he played a great game,” Lux said.

Even though they don’t play in the same conference, the two teams are still very familiar with each other, since they play against each other during the club season as well.

“A lot of us don’t like them and a lot of them don’t like us,” Wagner said. “We knew we had to make a statement. We knew everyone was going to be here, so we had to show out.”

While they still have respect for some of the other top competition around the state, the Wolverines wouldn’t be surprised if they crossed paths with the Knights for a third matchup, in the state title game.

“Those are the two best teams in the state right there,” Lux said. “I really hope we get to play them again in the final.”