TRAVERSE CITY — The Alpena boys soccer team finished regular season play on a positive note, defeating rival Traverse City Central 2-1 on Monday.

The Wildcats wasted little time taking an early lead when Ivo Arvidsson-Ullberg found the back of the net two minutes into the game on an assist from Mike Clark.

The Trojans tied the game up late in the half, but Alpena scored the game-winning goal with 15 minutes to play in regulation on a goal from Grant Botha who was assisted by Craig Tagliareni.

“Our defense and goalkeeping played very well. The first time we defeated Central, they were missing a handful of players so we knew we were going to see a better team and we did,” Alpena coach Tim Storch said. “It was important for us to earn a win like this because we had been in a funk lately and I told the guys we want to be peaking heading into the state tournament. We’re hopping for a good, long run and tonight we got back to the way we were playing early in the season.”

The Wildcats finish the regular season with a 15-4-2 overall record and their 5-4-1 Big North Conference record was good for third place.

It was the first time in program history that the Wildcats finished with a winning record in BNC play.

Alpena will begin postseason play on Thursday when the Wildcats host Mt. Pleasant at 5 p.m.

The Alpena JV team came from behind and tied Central 2-2 on Monday.

BOYS TENNIS

Alpena competes at BNC Championships

TRAVERSE CITY–The Alpena High boys tennis competed in the Big North Conference championships on Friday in Traverse City, showing marked improvement from the beginning of the season.

Kevin Cook and Josh Pokorzynski finished in fourth place at one doubles for Alpena; Ashwin Chhapamohan finished fourth at one singles and Dean Kowalewsky won two matches, which earned him third place at two singles.