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Wakefield guessed wrong, and couldn't adjust in time to prevent Jenson's drive sailing past him and settling in the back of the goal. It gave the Warriors a hard-fought 2-1 victory over their non-conference rivals. And it also was the Warriors' first win of the season as well, prompting an ice-water shower for head coach Eric Szymchack administered by his players.

Perhaps it was fitting the game should come down to a penalty kick, a duel between one player against the goalie, considering it was a defensive struggle all afternoon. Forest Area scored first on a goal with 18:42 remaining in the first half.

The two teams battled back-and-forth throughout the afternoon, with first one going on the attack and then the other. But the goalies were up to the challenge, and each made several nice saves.

Kalkaska tied the game at 1-1 with 31:16 to play in the second half when Tylor O'Neal scored on a header off a corner kick.

But the game settled back into a defensive struggle after his goal. Justin Cecil made one particularly outstanding save for Forest Area at the 2-minute mark when he leaped high in the air to snare the ball with only inches to spare.

The Warriors received the penalty kick when the officials whistled the Blazers for a handball.

"That was frustrating, to have a loss because of a penalty kick," Kalkaska coach Andrew Urquhart said. "It should have been the other way. We should have put four or five (goals) in. "We had the opportunities. We just didn't do it. The game before (a 5- 1 loss to Benzie Central), we just couldn't finish. We got the ball down there, we had great opportunities ... couldn't put it in. "Our defense looked a lot better. We really worked on our wings, so that was great." Previously, the Warriors lost to Fairview, 3- 1. Cullen Lane scored the only goal for Forest Area, on an assist from Luke Rookus.Sam Runkel, Brandon Rookus, Mitch Core and Jesse Richards played well on defense in that game.