News Photo by Owen Kinzey Alpena’s Joe LaCross handles the ball during a Big North Conference soccer game in Alpena on Tuesday.

ALPENA — Looking for redemption after last week’s tough loss to Petoskey, the Alpena High boys Soccer team took on one of the more talented teams in the Big North Conference — the Gaylord Blue Devils on Tuesday — and came away with a 1-1 tie.

Although controlling possession seemed to be an issue against Petoskey, the Wildcats’ key to success was maintaining possession of the ball.

“As I’ve said before, the BNC is totally up in the air, and any team can win on any given night. If we continue to play like we did tonight, we stack up great against anybody,” Alpena coach Gregg Supiran said.

Alpena set the tempo early, controlling the ball and forcing many shots on Gaylord’s goal.

The Wildcat’s first significant attempt came with 34:20 left on the clock, where Gabe Glawe barely missed the goal just to the right.

Another two minutes later, Glawe had another opportunity to score. Dribbling the ball right past the goalie, making him miss, Glawe just ran out of space and missed to the left.

Alpena continued to put all the pressure on the Blue Devils, but repeated saves by Gaylord’s goalie kept the score knotted at 0-0.

Finally, with 4:43 remaining in the half, the Wildcats struck first. After his third shot of the game, Glawe shot the ball right past the goalie and right through the net.

Confidence and momentum favored Alpena, and the team had to finish strong to handle business.

As the half came to a close, the Wildcats had the 1-0 lead entering the locker room.

Alpena came out of the break with the same confidence and drive to keep the pressure on Gaylord. Playing its style and speed of game made Alpena feel much more comfortable in both the offensive and defensive facets of the game.

With 32:04 on the clock, Alpena had a golden opportunity to extend its lead.

Three straight shot attempts were sent right into the goal, but the Blue Devils’ keeper miraculously saved every single one.

All the momentum switched instantly, and Gaylord was ready to capitalize on the play.

Nine minutes later, the game was back to a tie. At 23:47, Ethan Ford had a great chance to score and put it just out of the reach of Michael Herrmann.

Both sides had 23 minutes to score, but neither team could finish or capitalize on goal-scoring chances.

As time expired, both sides tied at 1-1.

“We played very well tonight, and I’m completely okay with the outcome of that one. It obviously would’ve been nice to take home the win, but we showed great improvement from the last game,” Supiran said. “We took control of the ball really well and switched up our points of attack, which were the two key downfalls of our last game, so overall, I’m very pleased.”

Alpena plays Cadillac on Thursday.