SLP Orioles Soccer Teams Advance in Section 6AAA Tournament

 It was a chilly Thursday night in St. Louis Park but there was plenty of hot soccer action in the Section 6AAA Soccer Tournament with the Oriole soccer teams hosting quarterfinal action with the girls winning in overtime over the Minneapolis Southwest Lakers 1-0 and the boys flying past the Armstrong Falcons 4-2.  

First up was the girls quarterfinal game and just when you thought the Minneapolis Southwest Lakers and St. Louis Park Orioles were headed for a shootout after close to 100 minutes of game time, Hanna Wilsey scores the game winning goal with 1:43 left in overtime to lead the Orioles to a 1-0 win over the Lakers.  

The game was a defensive battle throughout regulation time and neither team would erase the zeros from the St. Louis Park stadium scoreboard.  So the game headed to the first of two 10:00 overtime periods.  The second one wouldn't be needed because Hanna Wilsey would score from the center slot with 1:43 left in the period to send St. Louis Park into the semifinals.  

The Orioles improved their record to 8-8 and will face the Hopkins Royals on Saturday, October 16 at 1 PM at Hopkins High School in Minnetonka.  The Lakers ended their season with a record of 6-7-3.  

What a night for Luca Guarin.  He would get the hat trick as the St. Louis Park Orioles bounced back from an early deficit to beat the Armstrong Falcons 4-2.  

The Falcons would break out of the starting gate early on William Saar's left side goal :28 into the game.  The Orioles would even the score at one on Bennett Kouame's goal.  

St. Louis Park would break the game open in the second half with a pure hat trick from Guarin.  His first two goals would come off passes from Bennett Kouame, the first 1:01 into the second half.  He would pick up his third goal after Kouame's goal was disallowed due to an offside call.  The goal would come on a penalty kick and the Orioles led 4-1.  But Armstrong would not go away.  The Falcons would cut the deficit to two as Nathan Hunt got a pass from Jonathan Castro and he would put it past St. Louis Park goalkeeper Luis Benitez Matias.  That would also be the final goal of the game.  

The Orioles improved their record to 11-4 and advanced to the semifinals on Saturday, October 16 at 3 PM in Minneapolis as they face the top seeded Southwest Lakers.  The Lakers punched their ticket to the semifinals with their fourth consecutive shutout, a 5-0 win over the Cooper Hawks.  The Falcons end their season with a record of 7-9.