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The thick mud that ran down the heart of Buck Nystrom Field almost saved the game for the Ravens.

But James Johnson swung things Monroe Catholic’s way.

After Mira Kratochvil’s shot beat the Eielson goalkeeper, only to wind up stuck in mud tantalizingly close to the goal line, Johnson finished the job and finished off the Ravens in the process, netting the game-winner in Monroe’s 4-3 triumph Wednesday.

“The fact that James kept running and didn’t give up was the key there,” Monroe coach Nettie LaBelle-Hamer said. “It was pretty exciting. It was a moment of a little too much excitement for me.”

Johnson’s second goal of the evening capped off a contest that saw the Rams, who were missing seven players to confirmation services, come back from three one-goal deficits.

“I told them at the beginning of the game that soccer’s a mental game,” LaBelle-Hamer said. “They just kept going, which is what you’ve got to do.”

Kratochvil brought the Rams back one last time, evening the game at 3-3 on a goal with roughly 10 minutes remaining.

“(After Mira’s goal), we saw there wasn’t much time left, we just kept pushing and did some substitutions to mix it up,” LaBelle-Hamer said.

Johnson, who also scored Monroe’s second goal, then buried the winner with 3 minutes to play.

Andrew Heckman recorded the first goal for Monroe.

“It was a good game, it was exciting,” LaBelle-Hamer said. “It was one of those evenly-matched games. It was fun to watch.”

In the girls contest, the Rams couldn’t overcome playing short-handed as they fell to Eielson 5-1.

Monroe started the game without any substitutes only to see defenseman Kirsten Barnard go down with a knee injury at 3 minutes into the game.

After falling behind by two goals early, Cassie Ringstad scored off a corner kick late in the first half to keep it close, but the Ravens broke it open after the intermission.

“We were feeling pretty good (at half), then we just kind of wore down,” Monroe coach Justin Racette said. “Ten players having to do the work of 11, that’s just how it goes.”

The Rams are scheduled to take on North Pole on Saturday.

West Valley sweeps

While the Hutchison boys hung tough for the better part of the game, West Valley finally pulled away en route to a boys and girls prep soccer sweep Wednesday at West Valley.

The West Valley boys claimed a 6-1 win, while the girls posted a 9-0 victory.

The Wolfpack boys held just a 1-0 advantage at halftime and a 2-1 lead early in the second half.

“We played them pretty dang tough until the last 25 minutes of the game. We played really solid the better half of the (boys) game,” Hutchison boys and girls coach Scott Tompkins said. “West Valley stayed after it. I think they were surprised we played as well as we did. They continued to come after us and they deserved that win.”

With the Hawks taking advantage of the small-size of Allridge Field by keeping five or six players back on the defensive end, the Wolfpack struggled to find room to operate until the second half, when Nick Herzberg took over.

Herzberg scored three goals had one assist to lead the Wolfpack, while Asa Seymour chipped in two goals and Luke Carson provided a goal and assist.

“They just used the size of the field to their advantage. The second half we were able to spread them out a little more, give them time and room to do some stuff,” Wolfpack coach Alan McGinty said. “I was actually surprised and thought that Hutch did a pretty good job. We’ll see what happens next time we play them.”

In the girls game, the Wolfpack put any questions they had about their team gelling to rest when seven different players found the back of the net.

Kacy Gilbert-Gard and Malia Simpson had two goals apiece, while Melanie Hall, Shelby Solomon, Lindsay Martinez, Jovia Manzie and Katie Oates all found their way into the scoring column.

“It was just a good overall performance. There wasn’t any one person who stole the show. The girls figured out how to play together today,” West Valley coach Greg Gibson said. “I was pleased with the girls. We were worried about having team chemistry. We have a number of talented girls, but they hadn’t really shown team chemistry yet.”

The Hawks had trouble generating any offensive attack against West Valley.

“We were just outplayed. Our girls, we spent all night long defending our own goal,” Tompkins said. “We couldn’t get anything going offensively. The girls gave it their best and we were outgunned tonight.”

The Hawks play again at 5:30 and 7:15 p.m. today against Lathrop, while West Valley takes on Eielson on Friday.

Softball split

One bad inning cost the Delta Junction Huskies their chance at a sweep of Eielson.

Instead, the squads split the Aurora Conference doubleheader, with Delta taking the first game 14-1 and Eielson claiming the second contest 7-5.

After being held by Kendall Knight to two hits in the first game, the Ravens got to Knight in the second inning of Game 2, scoring all seven runs in that frame.

“It’s just one inning that killed us,” Delta coach Lindsay Pinkelman said. “Otherwise, we played a great game.”

Trailing 7-2 in the second game, Kari Olsen’s bunt sparked a late Huskies rally, as they pulled within two.

The Huskies then dropped the Ravens 1-2-3 in the fifth with four minutes left in the time limit to earn one more shot at a comeback, but came up short.

“It was a total team effort that second game,” Pinkleman said. “The girls did a great job coming back. I’m so proud of them.”

Knight was stellar in the first game, striking out six in seven innings of work.

Kyra Kimball knocked three base hits and Whitney McLaren had a triple in Game 1 before connecting on an inside-the-park homer in Game 2.

West Valley baseball

Rex Mcneight singled home Tyler Bolles for the game-winning run in the bottom of the seventh inning as West Valley pulled out a 6-5 Mid Alaska Conference win.

Eielson had rallied from a 5-0 deficit to tie the game with four runs in the sixth and one more in the seventh to set the stage for the game-winning rally.

Ben Lauritzen’s double keyed Eielson’s four-run outburst in the sixth inning. Justyn Nutt walked, stole second and scored on a two-out double by Nick Gould to tie the game in the top of the seventh.

Mcneight and Kyle Lester had two hits apiece for the Wolfpack. One of Lester’s hits was a triple. Bolles worked 5 2/3 innings for the Wolfpack before giving way to Jeffery Brooks, who picked up the win. Bolles registered seven strikeouts.

Nico Shafnitz pitched five innings for Eielson and Lauritzen finished up, taking the loss. Shafnitz also had a double for the Ravens.

West Valley improved to 3-1 on the season heading into a noon doubleheader Saturday at Arco Field against cross-town rival Lathrop (2-1).

Eielson is 1-2 on the year. The Ravens play a doubleheader on Saturday at Delta Junction.

Tuesday soccer

The West Valley boys opened their season Tuesday night by scoring a 3-0 Mid Alaska Conference victory over the defending champion North Pole Patriots.

“I thought we played an excellent game,” North Pole coach Robert Martinez said.

Martinez had 13 seniors graduate from last year’s team and has just five players returning, so the Patriots are in a rebuilding process.

“We’re very young, but the boys played real tough tonight,” Martinez said. “West Valley is stacked this year and their bench is deep, so I feel good about the game that we played.”

Asa Seymour, Nick Herzberg and Ollie Tunic accounted for West Valley’s goals.

Correction

Players in Tuesday’s prep soccer photo were misidentified.

The cutline should have read:

West Valley’s Jake Stephans steals the ball from North Pole junior Dane Ebanez during the second half of their game Tuesday at West Valley.