After two years of shivering at St. Cloud State University, high school soccer fans can head inside to US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis on Monday for the first state high school tournament to be played at the new home of the Minnesota Vikings.
St. Croix Valley soccer fans will have to set their alarm clocks early because the top seeded and unbeaten Stillwater Ponies will have the honor of playing the first game in the new venue as they take on the Andover Huskies in the Class AA semifinals at 8 AM.
The Ponies advanced with the second straight win over their Suburban East Conference rival the Mounds View Mustangs 6-1 and the Huskies shut out the Moorhead Spuds 2-0.
At 10 AM, it's a battle of two Lake Conference teams as the Wayzata Trojans face the Edina Hornets. Both teams advanced by way of a shut out. Wayzata got two goals from Maclane King to beat the Owatonna Huskies 5-0. Edina had a pair of goals from Matt Lindberg to beat the Burnsville Blaze 2-0. The Trojans won both games against the Hornets by the identical score of 2-0. Can they make it three in a row?
Whether or not you leave for lunch, there's more soccer at noon as a couple of Big Nine Conference teams open the Class A boys semifinals, the Northfield Raiders and the Mankato West Scarlets. It took a shootout for the Scarlets to win their quarterfinal game over the Bemidji Lumberjacks 2-1 and the Raiders also won in a shootout over the Willmar Cardinals by the same 2-1 score.
The 2 PM game pits the Blake Bears and the St. Thomas Academy Cadets. The Bears came from behind with three unanswered goals to beat the Duluth Denfeld Hunters 3-1. The Cadets got two goals apiece from Amanuel Bird and Logan Davis for a 5-0 shut out of St. Paul Como Park.
Concluding the inaugural day's festivities is a Class A girls semifinal twinbill. First up, it's the defending Class A champion Benilde-St. Margaret's Red Knights taking on a rival that's familiar to hockey fans, the Hill-Murray Pioneers. Vivian Shinall scored four goals to lead the Red Knights to a 6-0 win over the St. Cloud Apollo Eagles and Katherine Schindler's goal 1:26 into the second half was the game winner for the Pioneers over the Waconia Wildcats 1-0.
The day's final game features the Dover-Eyota Eagles and the Mankato West Scarlets. Ashlee Olson, who played on the state Class AA girls basketball championship team in 2015, scored two second half goals to lead the Eagles over the St. Paul Academy Spartans. Junior Shelby Lund got the hat trick to help the Scarlets rout the North Branch Vikings 7-1.
So there's the first day of competition at US Bank Stadium. It should be a monumental day as state tournament action comes in from the cold.
No comments:
Post a Comment