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The Juneau boys and South Anchorage girls soccer teams will look to defend their state championships on Saturday after both teams slipped past their semifinal opponents.
Juneau's Johnny Joyce scored in extra time to lift the Crimson Bears by West, 2-1 in one state semifinal. Juneau will play for its third consecutive state crown Saturday against Dimond, which hasn't won the championship since 2002. The Lynx defeated rival South, 3-0 in the semis, scoring all three goals in the final seven minutes on strikes by Travis Merritt, Michael Sedor, and Austin Portch.
In the girls semifinals, South and Dimond also met in a reprise of a classic Cook Inlet Conference final that went to penalty kicks, with the Lynx prevailing. In the rematch, the game was tied 1-1 through 80 minutes of regulation and overtime before the Wolverines avenged last week's defeat by winning the shootout round, four goals to two. Katelynn Zanders scored in regulation for South and added the clinching goal in penalty kicks as well.
South will play West Valley, a first-time title game participant, in the championship game. The Wolfpack received goals by Christina Bussell and Madison Ackiss in a 2-0 semifinal win over Soldotna.