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Before the prep soccer season even started, Greg Gibson was determined to make sure his team wasn’t going to lose any games because of their conditioning.

In what could have been their final game, those grueling preseason workouts paid dividends for the West Valley girls.

After wearing Wasilla down in the first half, the Wolfpack pounced in the second, using goals from Marisa Rorabaugh and Jessica Luoma to claim a 2-0 win over the Warriors in the consolation bracket of the ASAA State High School Soccer Tournament on Friday at the Anchorage Football Stadium.

The win set up a fourth-place showdown today with Colony.

“First half was pretty much a back-and-forth kind of game. A couple of girls came out at halftime and said they felt the other team was tiring out,” Gibson said. “We came out in the second half and really pushed hard.

“We did a lot of conditioning during the preseason. Here’s where it paid off.”

Even though the eighth-seeded Wolfpack controlled the play after halftime, they didn’t get on the board more than 20 minutes had run off the clock.

That’s when Rorabaugh broke the scoreless tie — with a little help from the crossbar.

Taking a free kick from roughly 35 yards out and in the middle of the field, Gibson instructed the sophomore defender to — quite literally — take her best shot.

Rorabaugh’s blast sailed high and hit the crossbar. But instead of bouncing out, it careened off the back of the jumping Wasilla goaltender and into the net.

“When we got the first goal, we breathed a little sigh of relief,” Gibson said.

The Wolfpack wouldn’t tally again until the game went into stoppage time.

Luoma then sealed the deal in the final minutes by kneeing in Rorabaugh’s cross off a free kick.

“It was a nice little insurance goal at the very end of the game,” Gibson said.

After falling to No. 1 South Anchorage 5-0 in Thursday’s first round, the Wolfpack quickly got the impression Friday’s game against the sixth-seed Warriors was going to be a different story.

“(It was) definitely a different style game than yesterday against South. Today we were able to play more of a free-flowing game,” Gibson said. “We didn’t have to try and hold back and play conservative.”

That’s because West Valley’s back line proved more than up to the challenge.

“In the first half, the back and forth, Wasilla came out and had a lot of energy. They were running, being aggressive, playing different than they played day before,” Gibson said. “The first half, the back line was under duress and they played tough. Second half, they were controlling all the balls.”

And that control let West Valley’s forwards press the attack and find the back of the net for the first time in the tournament.

A big part of West Valley’s second-half control, sophomore midfielder Shelby Solomon was named as the team’s player of the game.

“Shelby is a clear kind of physical leader for us,” Gibson said. “Today was one of her standard performances. She’s out there helping us keep shape, talking to the girls, moving them around, and helping us win the physical battles in the middle of the field.”

Now, Solomon and the rest of the Wolfpack must face the No. 7 Knights for the right to claim fourth place and end their season with a win.

“We’re planing on a team similar to Wasilla,” Gibson said of Colony, which took down Soldotna 1-0 in their consolation game. “The girls are excited. They want to bring home fourth place.”

All-MAC

Just how bright is the future of the West Valley girls team?

All four of their selections on the All-Mid Alaska Conference team were underclassmen.

The West Valley boys, also MAC champions, had three selections.

Freshman midfielder Malia Simpson, freshman goalie Mackenzie Maxwell, sophomore defender Marisa Rorabaugh and sophomore midfielder Shelby Solomon represented the Wolfpack girls.

Julie Gilhuly, Hannah Ross and Jamie Sawchuk received the nod from Lathrop, while Anita Holladay, Liz Rodgers and Chelsea Wilkes represented North Pole.

Sarah Colvin made the girls squad from Eielson, while Kristin Davis was Monroe’s lone representative.

On the boys side, Nick Herzberg, Peter Miller and Evan McDonough represented the champion Wolfpack.

Forest Chumbley, Logan Lyle and Martin Gray represted Lathrop, and Phillip Hingst, Scott Groff and Travis Church made the team from North Pole.

Hutchison, in the program’s second year, placed Cole Daniel on the All-MAC team, while Brian Lorenzell made it from Monroe and Josh Langfield represented Eielson.