News Photo by Owen Kinzey Alpena High School’s Sophie Kindt boots the ball during the Wildcats’ win over Sault Ste. Marie on Thursday at Alpena High.

ALPENA — The Alpena High School girls soccer team (8-9, 1-9 BNC) hosted its first round of district playoffs on Thursday, where the Wildcats defeated Sault Ste. Marie easily, 3-0.

Dangerous play from Alpena’s goal scorers gave the Wildcats an early advantage it would never relinquish.

Aside from scoring, the Wildcats locked down the Blue Devils, essentially giving them zero chances to attempt a shot on goal.

“We worked really hard today, and we got dangerous early, which was key for us tonight,” Alpena coach Gregg Supiran said. “We had good passing, solid anticipation, and, overall, decent shots the entire game. Our defense was great, as well. We gave them pretty much no chances to score, so I was super pleased with our backline.”

Within the first three minutes of the game, Alpena kicked off to an extraordinary start with a leadoff goal.

Laurel Alberts sank the shot at 37:16 as she slid into the ball, sending it to the left of the goalie to put the Wildcats up 1-0.

With the momentum and the lead, Alpena continued to roll with another goal right after.

Exactly another three minutes later, Ezra Peterson secured control of the ball on the left side of the net and attempted to shoot the ball to the short side of the post.

Peterson snuck it just past the diving goalie, setting Alpena up 2-0 with total command of the match.

After Alpena went up 2-0, Sault Ste. Marie began to settle in with a much stronger midfield and backline.

Limiting the Wildcat’s opportunities proved key, and the game stayed 2-0 going into halftime.

Jumping out of the half, Alpena needed to amp up its offense and maintain its defensive efforts.

The defense continued to hold strong, but the offense saw little to no improvement.

Eventually, Faith Dragiewicz got into the game and instantly displayed her impact on the field.

At 27:35, Dragiewicz found the back of the net, completely faking out the goalie and flipping the ball in the air to the left as it spun into the goal, increasing Alpena’s lead to 3-0.

The remaining 27 minutes ticked off the clock as both offenses found no success, and the Wildcats closed out the shutout.

“We anticipated today, but we need to take it to a whole different level against Petoskey,” Supiran said. “They’re going to be tough, and we know that, so we have to bring the intensity to them.”

Alpena travels to Petoskey on Tuesday.