News Photo by Owen Kinsey The Alpena High School girls soccer team poses together Saturday after a successful tournament with four wins and a championship trophy. The Wildcats hosted the Sunrise Side Challenge Cup in Alpena, playing four opponents and not allowing a single goal.
ALPENA — The Alpena High School girls soccer team (6-4-1, 0-4 BNC) hosted the Sunrise Side Challenge Cup on Saturday, playing four different opponents in one day.
The Wildcats were very successful, winning all four games by a landslide.
Alpena played Bay City Central, Beaverton and Sault Ste. Murray and Hazel Park won 4-0, 8-0, 2-0 and 7-0, respectively.
In the first game, Alpena faced Bay City Central, and the Wildcats had a good day.
Five minutes into the game, with the clock exactly 15:00, Reese Wisniewski scored the first goal, giving Alpena a 1-0 lead.
News photo by Owen Kinsey Faith Dragewicz moves around the field during Alpena High School's Sunrise Side Challenge Cup game on Saturday. Dragiewicz scored several goals throughout the day, scoring a hat trick in the final game to help lead his team.
The Wolves were aggressive and physical in all aspects of the game, leading the score at 1-0 at halftime.
The second half started with a series of great saves from Alpena's Faith Henske.
Playing great defense, Faith Dragewicz found an opportunity to break through and shoot the ball around the Bay City goalie.
Less than two minutes later, Wisniewski created a great scoring opportunity for Dragiewicz, who found the open net.
Wisniewski scored the winning goal at 3:50, putting the game within reach.
News photo by Owen Kinzey Reese Wisniewski protects the ball during the Alpena High School girls soccer team tournament Saturday in Alpena.
Alpena won 4-0 and was excited heading into game two.
Game 2 took a turn for the better as the Wildcats responded quickly.
At 16:34, Beaverton got a handball in the box and Alpena was awarded a penalty kick.
Sophie Kindt took the kick and drilled it to take the lead.
Three minutes later, Wisniewski sank in a great shot for his third goal of the day, giving his team a 2-0 lead.
News Photo by Owen Kinsey The Alpena High School girls soccer team picked up the trophy Saturday after a successful tournament with four wins and a championship trophy. The Wildcats hosted the Sunrise Side Challenge Cup in Alpena, playing four opponents and not allowing a single goal.
The Beavers settled in for eight minutes until the Wildcats did more damage.
Dragjewicz kicked his third goal of the day, and a few minutes later Laurel Alberts scored his first goal on an assist from Wiśniewski.
Going into the second half, the Wildcats led 4-0 and Alpena changed its entire lineup with a number of positional changes.
Still, 57 seconds into the first half, Kint scored his second goal of the game.
Alpena's usual defender, Sydney LaCrosse, also joined in the scoring. She scored with 4:26 left in the game.
News photo by Owen Kinsey Ezra Peterson will compete in the Alpena High School girls soccer tournament on Saturday.
Alpena fought back with another goal. The goal completed Kindt's hat trick and the Wildcats needed just one more goal to take a 7-0 lead.
Just over a minute later, that mercy paid off as Madeline Farley ended the game with her eighth goal.
In the end, the third game was Alpena's first challenge of the day.
Although it was a back-and-forth affair for much of the game, Wisniewski and the Wildcats got on the scoreboard early.
Wisniewski scored 23 seconds into the game when he placed the ball into the top corner of the goal.
News Photo by Owen Kinsey Laurel Alberts kicks a ball during Saturday's Alpena High School girls soccer tournament game.
After a 17-minute scoring delay, Wisniewski scored another easy goal for Dragiwicz and Alpena finally got back into scoring position.
Even though the match was only in the first half, this was all they scored for the remainder of the match, giving them a 2-0 lead against Sarthe.
Finally, after three straight games, the Wildcats took an hour's break during the final game that brought the championship trophy to Alpena.
The Wildcats played against Hazel Park and took advantage of poor backline play.
It was a long day and both teams were gassed, but they kept fighting to win the trophy.
Dragiewicz kicked off the game early with 18 minutes and 33 seconds remaining, starting a hat trick game. Ezra Peterson received an assist on the shot to give Alpena an early lead.
Less than a minute later, Dragevich was back in the Wildcats' net, extending their lead.
Wisniewski was unable to let Dragiewicz score all on his own, and as soon as he had free space to dribble the ball, the Hazel Park goalkeeper had no chance.
Wisniewski slipped the ball between the goalie's legs for another goal 26 seconds into the first half.
Dragiewicz came out of halftime with a hat trick and his last goal of the day.
Alpena led 5-0 and let most of that pressure go off the net. Then Laurel Alberts dribbled her way to the front of the net and took a shot, extending the lead to six points.
One last goal was added, this time from Kint about 25 yards from the goal.
She dropped the ball over the head of Hazel Park's goalkeeper, ending the game with a final score of 7-0.
“We really picked up some momentum today, which could be big for our team moving forward,” Spillane said. “Obviously it's nice to win your own tournament and we all came out and performed today. Faith Dragewicz, Reese Winiewski, Laurel Alberts and Sophie Kindt were outstanding players and I They did everything you could ask of them all day long.”
