News Photo by Owen Kinzey An Alpena High School player kicks the ball during the Wildcats’ 6-0 victory over Elkton Pigeon Bay Port Laker in Alpena on Friday night.

ALPENA — Friday marked the Alpena High School girls soccer team’s first home game, at which the team took on Elkton Pigeon Bay Port Laker.

The Wildcats (1-0-1) tied Saginaw Heritage the day before and bounced back against the Lakers for a 6-0 victory.

Controlling possession of the ball and creating many opportunities to score led Alpena over Lake High.

“Our passing was excellent,” Alpena coach Gregg Supiran said. “We connected with one another super well. Our backline was strong, and we finished some sloppy goals. I thought we played very well, and seeing Reese Wisniewski, Faith Dragiewicz, and Anna Skiba all score goals was very promising.”

Not even five minutes into the game, Alpena struck first.

Dragiewicz, a familiar face who dominated all night, dribbled the ball straight down to the net and knocked the ball into the back of the goal.

That goal would be her first of the night and would give Alpena the lead it would never let go of.

Alpena continued to possess the ball until the clock struck 22:38, when the ball slipped right between the legs of one of the Lakers.

That slight mistake turned into a perfect goal-scoring opportunity for Skiba, who stepped right up and found the net for Alpena’s second goal.

Although Alpena got two goals up early, Elkton Pigeon Bay settled in, limiting the wide-open looks it had previously given up.

Until 2:56, the Laker defense was strong, but Wisniewski had a clear shot on the net yet nailed the crossbar, and the ball ricocheted out.

Just over a minute later, however, the Wildcats got in the net again for Dragiewicz’s second score of the game. That goal was set up by Laurel Alberts.

Going into the half, Alpena held a mighty 3-0 lead and showed no signs of slowing down.

Fifty-eight seconds into the second half, Wisniewski finally got one to go her way.

While she would later hit the crossbar again, the early second half score rolled past the outstretched goalie, giving Alpena a 4-0 lead.

Next, the Wildcats extended the lead further on another Wisniewski score. On that occasion, Wisniewski cleaned up a deflected shot saved by the goalie to make the lead 5-0.

Finally, out of nowhere, Wisniewski pulled through with the hat trick, scoring her third goal of the second half. Dragiewicz came through with a pass that allowed Wisniewski to tap in her final shot.

Ultimately, the domination of possession and ability to pass the ball around effectively secured the 6-0 win.

“It’s still early in the year, but there are definitely things we can improve on,” Supiran said. “We need to keep our backline strong and switch the point of attack better when we play conference opponents. Not every game is going to be as easy as this one, and we need to play with high effort all the time.”

Alpena plays Grayling on Tuesday.