News Photo by Jonny Zawacki Traverse City West defender Elle Warren and Alpena midfielder Leslie Roland (11) go after a loose ball during the first half of a Big North Conference girls soccer game on Thursday at Wildcat Stadium in Alpena.

At one point Jaelyn Dobrowolski looked like she might become a star on the soccer field at Alpena High School. But instead of wearing green and white, Dobrowolski moved to Traverse City to put on the green and gold for the Titans at Traverse City West.

On Thursday, Dobrowolski showed she has star potential and the chance to be a thorn in Alpena’s side for the next several seasons as the freshman found the back of the net six times and had an assist in the Titans’ 9-1 mercy-rule victory over Alpena.

“It was frustrating to me that she moved away because she was a girl that I was watching her entire life grow up and I was exciting about having her and it’s not fun watching her on the other team,” Alpena coach Tim Storch said.

Dobrowolski put West ahead early as she scored the game’s first goal less than five minutes into the contest. Early on the Wildcats battled and at times were able to keep up with the Titans. Alpena was able to tie the game just over 10 minutes into the first half on a goal from freshman Anna Young.

“I thought we played well at times, but we gave up some goals that we shouldn’t have given up, but a lot of that is because West is a quality team,” Storch said. “I thought we lost our marks at points and times and that’s part of recognition and fitness. I did see some bright things going forward, considering we are so young, but we still have to look at the fact that we gave up nine goals and do what we can to correct that.”

The game remained tied at 1-1 for over 10 minutes as the teams battled back and forth, but Dobrowolski and the Titans proved to be too much late in the game as they scored three unanswered goals to end the half, all coming off of the foot of Dobrowolski.

“We are starting several underclassmen and they are going to continue to get better as we go, but part of it is when we play teams of our caliber we are good, but we’re not yet ready to play teams at the next level and we have to continue to grow technically, tactically and physically to be able to compete with the top teams in our league,” Storch said. “We are behind those teams from a youth level and it carries on up into high school. We’re making strides, but it’s taking time.”

Dobrowolski wasted little time netting her fifth goal of the game less than three minutes into the second half to put West ahead by four goals.

Alpena looked as if it had its second goal 10 minutes into the second half, but goalie interference was called and the Wildcats were not awarded a goal.

It was as close as the Wildcats would come the rest of the night to scoring as West scored four goals, including another from Dobrowolski. Lexi Zoutendam and Kennedy Conway also found the back of the net before Mackenna DeVries scored the final goal off of a corner kick to end the game.

“I think we faded physically as the game went on, but looking at it from a coaching standpoint, we did have a few chances to put the ball in the net, but we still have to learn to grow defensively when we’re playing top competition,” Storch said.

West outshot the Wildcats 19-4 in the contest and dominated much of the second half en route to a big victory on the road.

Alpena falls to 4-4-1 overall and is 0-4 in Big North Conference play.

The Wildcats will be back in action Saturday when they travel to Birch Run for a tournament consisting of Gladwin, Saginaw Valley Lutheran and the host Birch Run who also won the tournament a year ago.

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