SLP Oriole Girls Lose, Boys tie Chanhassen Storm

Normalcy returned to St. Louis Park High School Thursday following the funeral of Officer Bill Mathews, husband of Assistant Activities Director Shawn Mathews as the Oriole soccer teams took on the Chanhassen Storm with the girls coming up short 3-1 and the boys squaring the Storm 2-2.

First up was the girls following a moment of silence for the Wayzata police officer who was killed in the line of duty September 8.  Neither team would score in the first half but the Orioles Ava Bishop came close on a couple of shots.  The first one was save by Storm goalkeeper Leah Olson and the second went wide to the right.

Chanhassen would score three consecutive goals in the second half.  Sophie Pawlyshyn began the scoring 6:06 into the half, followed by two straight goals from Claire Shea, one of seven Storm seniors.  Her first goal came from the center slot and the second game 3:21 later to put Chanhassen up by three.  But lo and behold for St. Louis Park fans, there would be no shut out on this hot early Thursday evening as Rosa Sigrunardottir would score from the left side of Olson and that would be the only scoring for the Orioles.

The Storm improved their record to 4-3 and will host their district rival the Chaska Hawks on Tuesday, September 19 at 7 PM.  The Orioles ended a four game winning streak and fell to 5-2.  They will also be in action on the 19th as they head up to New Hope to face the cooper Hawks in a 7 PM start.

Now to the boys game.  No it was not a rerun as both the Storm and the Orioles played to a 0-0 first half.  But in the second half, Chanhassen would take the early lead when a St. Louis Park player was fouled and Zach Swisher was awarded a penalty kick.  The ball would swish its way into the net.  The Orioles would tie the game as Zinedine Kroeten, the hero of the Chaska game on the 7th faced a four player Storm wall and sent the ball past the wall and across the goal line.  That would wrap up regulation time scoring so it was on to overtime.

St. Louis Park struck first when Anthony Brandel sent the ball to his fellow senior Jacob Stillman and he found the open net to give them the lead.  The lead would evaporate in the second half on Lorence Kurth's liner to the net 1:32 into the second overtime period and there would be no game winner.

Both teams records are now 4-3-1   Chanhassen returns to action on Saturday, September 16 against the St. Paul Academy Spartans at 4:30 PM in St. Paul.  St. Louis Park heads to New Hope on Tuesday, September 19 to take on the Cooper Hawks at 5 PM.