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Finding another gear

Alcona scores in bunches during rout of Houghton Lake

News Photo by Jonny Zawacki Alcona’s Josh Kilbourn (right) rips a shot on goal during the first half of a district quarterfinal game on Tuesday against Houghton Lake at Alcona High School. Kilbourn netted three goals in Alcona’s 9-1 victory.

LINCOLN — No one has to tell the Alcona soccer team what time of the year it is.

The Tigers turned things up a notch on Tuesday with a 9-1 Division 4 district quarterfinal blow out win over Houghton Lake at Alcona High School.

Brett Nelson and Josh Kilbourn provided more than enough offense for the Tigers as the two combined for seven of Alcona’s nine goals. Nelson netted four goals and Kilbourn added three as the duo also scored the first seven goals of the game.

“I think we played well as a team. We passed well, moved the ball well and things were just going our way tonight,” Nelson said. “We knew it was a big game and it’s the first game of districts so we had to start building momentum. It’s district’s so we played hard all night and didn’t give in at all.”

The Tigers opened with a flurry of goals early as they found the back of the net four times within the first eight minutes of the game.

Nelson opened the scoring just under three minutes into the contest on an easy breakaway goal. Two minutes later, Kilbourn found himself wide open and capitalized on a golden opportunity to give Alcona a two goal lead. The Tigers cashed in again 30 seconds later when Nelson took advantage of a mistake by the Houghton Lake goalkeeper, gathered a rebound and softly kicked it into the net.

A minute later, Kilbourn was gifted with the same opportunity on another misplay by the keeper and he tapped in the fourth goal of the contest.

“We came out strong and that was our plan. It’s district time so everyone wanted to come out a work hard,” Kilbourn said. “We came out quick and our coach wanted us to get a few goals quick and we were able to do that. We were able to get a big lead early and we stayed on top the rest of the way and took care of business.”

Midway through the first half, Nelson recorded a hat trick with his third goal after dancing around a host of Bobcat defenders to extend the lead to five.

Houghton Lake was able to get into the scoring column with under five minutes left in the opening half when Andrew Cochran hustled to beat Alcona keeper Aidan Wrobel to a ball and his sliding effort resulted in the ball popping up over Wrobel’s head and into the net.

The Tigers answered right back as they netted the final goal of the half a minute later as Kilbourn scored his third goal to record a hat trick and give Alcona a 6-1 halftime lead.

“We need to continue coming out and working hard. Tonight was a good way to begin districts, but we have to keep the momentum on our side,” Kilbourn said.

Nelson scored his fourth and final goal of the game 33 seconds into the second half.

Alcona ended the contest 7:45 into the second half after Joel Steiner scored on a well designed free kick opportunity to make it 8-1 and Elliot Dubuque ended the game via mercy rule with the ninth goal of the game as the Tigers were impressive in a big district opening win.

“As long as we keep playing like we have been lately, we should have a good chance to keep playing and continue on in district play,” Nelson said. “Many of us were on the team last year when we came up short in districts, so it’s our goal this year to win it on our home field.”

The Tigers advance to a district semifinal match at 7 p.m. Wednesday against Fairview at Alcona.

Jonny Zawacki can be reached via email at jzawacki@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5690.

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