Fairbanks’ Dylan Tobe (11) controls the ball against Northridge on Wednesday. The Panthers have advanced to the Division III district championship match against Wellington. The contest will be played on Saturday, 7 p.m., at Marysville High School. (Photo submitted)
Saturday’s match will be held at MHS
The Fairbanks High School boys soccer team, compared to the Bibical David, took out another Goliath during Division III tournament action on Wednesday.
The 13th-seeded Panthers, who had already defeated the No. 6 and 8 seeds in the postseason, added another higher-ranked team to its belt on Wednesday.
Fairbanks went on the road and defeated No. 7 Johnstown-Northridge, 2-0, in the district semifinals.
During the previous 1-0 victory over Tree of Life, the Panthers needed 107 minutes to score a goal.
The production came much sooner on Wednesday.
The match was only 15 minutes old when Jeremy Ziegler played a flop shot from the mid-field over the back line of Northridge’s defenders.
Forward Cade Ziegler ran on to the high bouncer, beat the opposing keeper to the spot by a step and headed the ball over for the first point.
Fairbanks continued its possession domination, but waited until the last two minutes of the first half to add an insurance goal.
Pierce Powell started the successful series of touches when he played a through-ball up to Ziegler in the right corner.
A touch and a kick of the ball to the middle of the box found Dylan Tobe, who drilled a shot with his left foot past the keeper to take the 2-0 score into the intermission.
The Panthers continued their possession advantage throughout the second half.
Their back line helped Fairbanks keeper Weston Lorenz maintain a clean sheet.
He finished with one save.
“These boys have proven that a combination of believing in each other, having a deep desire and an abundant trust are the right recipe for getting the desired results in the postseason,” said Panther coach Matt Humphrey. “The greater the sacrifice, the greater the reward.
“It’s an amazing group.”
Fairbanks (9-8-2) advanced to the district finals and will tangle with state-ranked and No. 2 seed Columbus Wellington.
It will be a very easy trip for FHS as the game will be played on Saturday, 7 p.m., at Marysville.
“We’ve had some long bus rides for previous district final games so it’s great to play close to home on a brand- new field,” said Humphrey.