One of the Alpena High boys soccer team’s goals every year is to be the best team in Northeast Michigan.

For the last two years at the Huron Shores Invitational, the Wildcats have been able to make that claim. They made it three years in a row on Saturday, going 3-0 to win the tournament title on their home field at Wildcat Stadium and they did it with authority, outscoring their opponents 15-0.

Alpena (8-4-1) topped Alcona 3-0 and Cheboygan 8-0 by mercy rule in division play and then blanked Tawas 4-0 in the tournament final.

“One of our goals is to the best team in Northeast Michigan,” Alpena coach Tim Storch said. “It’s nice. I told the boys it was a chance for them to step up and I was not looking for any one player to replace anybody, but if they all stepped up and elevated their game a little bit, we’d more than make up for that. We showed that we’re a solid team and our depth is coming along nicely.”

The Wildcats played without lineup regulars Cory Faylor for the first game and Frank Hnup.

After playing even with the Braves for a good chunk of the first half, the Wildcats broke the title game open with 14:03 left when Aidan Day found the back of the net from the 18.

That opened the floodgates for Alpena as Chandler Lantz (6:54), Kyle Supiran (3:44) and Tommy Hein (2:48) all scored before the end of the half to give Alpena a 4-0 lead. Hein capped Alpena’s scoring by bouncing a penalty kick past Tawas’ keeper.

“What I like is not just the goals, but the quality of the goals and the way we knock the ball around,” Storch said. “When you’re playing in a tournament format, you’re playing three 60-minute games and that’s a lot of soccer. You can’t just ride your horses the whole way.”

The Wildcats poured on the offense against Cheboygan and ended the game with 23 minutes left in the second half when Noah Carstens scored on a deflection to give the Wildcats the win by mercy-rule.

Walker Martin put Alpena on the board with 24:14 left in the first half off a corner kick by Hein and once again Alpena’s offense caught fire. After Lantz buried a chance into an empty net with 22:40 left, Evan LeTourneau scored a natural hat trick in almost seven minutes to give Alpena a 4-0 lead. He buried a rebound with 21:45 left, scored after a throw in with 17:42 left and found the back of the net one more time with 14:40 left.

LeTourneau’s last goal gave Alpena five goals on its first seven shots.

Martin scored his second goal with 28:49 left in the game on a deflection and Supiran scored on a feed from Hein (26:46) before Carstens ended the game with his goal.

Alpena opened the tournament with a 3-0 victory over Alcona, peppering Tigers’ keeper Conner McCoy and outshooting the Tigers 18-1.

Supiran broke a scoreless tie with 14:25 left in the first half and redirected a ball with 13:40 left for another goal. Martin added a goal in the second half with 7:05 to play, redirecting a corner kick by Hein.

McCoy held his own against Alpena, stopping several point-blank chances including early in the second half when he stopped LeTourneau’s header and then denied the rebound attempt. But the Tigers struggled offensively and hardly tested Alpena keeper Levi Goebel.

Alcona rebounded to beat Cheboygan 3-2 in its second game and fell short in a comeback attempt against Benzie Central in the second place game, losing 4-2.

Benzie led 1-0 at halftime, but quickly took a 3-0 lead in the second half thanks to two goals from Jerry Gomez. Devin Burkhart buried a penalty kick with 18:59 to play.

Josh Kilbourn put Alcona on the board with 10:09 left on an assist from Jared Steiner and Steiner scored at 8:23 after Benzie’s keeper had trouble corralling a rebound.

James Andersen can be reached via email at sports@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5694. Follow James on Twitter @ja_alpenanews.