FAIRBANKS, Alaska (KTVF) – It was no doubt a crazy start to the season for high school sports. Mother nature disrupted practices and games. However, the Lathrop Malemutes women’s soccer team was able to take the weather speed bump – and turn it into a season for the ages. Now they must keep that pedal to the metal – on their way to a possible state championship.
The course of the season for the Lady Malemute’s soccer team has been one of dominance, and that can only happen when you put in the work from the start of the off season. “It’s been kind of a fun journey. The girls have worked hard, from off-season training, where we do weights and conditioning, to getting into the season and just being focused on our tactics and making sure that we execute them to the fullest extent,” said Damon Crutcher, the Head Coach for Lathrop’s Girls Varsity Soccer team.
For a young team, the need for players to step up and dominate to keep winning is not lost on Crutcher, with his front line for the team made up of sophomores who are game tested from the previous season.
“Yeah, so it’s really nothing new to them. Our whole front line is made up of sophomores, and when they were freshmen last year, they knew that they had to step up last year and score goals. Our two leading scorers last year were two of the freshmen, that are now sophomores,” said Crutcher.
The mind set for the season has been a next game up, and focus on the job at hand mentality. Yet, for the Lady Malemute’s soccer team, the route for playoffs will be a tough one. “It’s a challenge, I mean the way we look at it, we’re going to have the hardest path of anyone going to a state title, so I think in my opinion service is the third best team in the state,” said Crutcher.
Crutcher added, “We played them earlier this year on a cold, dreary day in Anchorage, and I think it was thirty degrees and raining, so it was a pretty miserable day for anybody. So we’ve seen them before, and now we’re just going to embrace the challenge. We’ll have our tactics in place and hopefully find a way to get a result.”
The Lady Malemutes would find their result and continue their win streak. The win over the Service Cougars moves them to seven straight wins and nine games without a loss. The team faces the number one team in Alaska, the Diamond Lynx, in their semi-final match up.
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