Local Teams Advance In Girls Soccer Playoff Action

Chris Shevich-NSO

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Oct 14

Kerry Rodd-NSO

If nothing else the Cloquet girls soccer team wanted to make sure they avoided a first-round upset in the Section 7A Tournament. The Jacks did just that and more with a dominating 4-0 shutout win over Becker to open tournament play.

Cloquet was led on the offensive side of things by Emily Rikkola who pounded in two goals and added an assist as well as Jessie Ryan’s goal and an assist.

All four goals for Cloquet were scored in an explosive first half of play that saw the ball rarely go past midfield. Rikkola’s first marker came just six minutes in with Ryan assisting. In the 22nd minute it was Becca Hammond converting a pass from Kristi Konietzko for a goal and the Jacks were up 2-0. Rikkola added her second goal in the 35th minute when she made a runoff a Carri Zeadow throw-in and less than three minutes later Ryan punched home the final goal of the game, beating the defenders straight in front of the net with Rikkola assisting.

In all the Jacks tossed 20-shots on Becker goalie Amanda Wolf, while Cloquet goalie Kenzie Rathe faced only three shots for the entire game.

Cloquet also got more good news following the game when they found out that Zimmerman, the sections 12th seed, beat the Grand Rapids Thunderhawks the sections #5 seed.

The Lumberjacks will host the Zimmerman Thunder on Saturday afternoon at Rol Bromberg Field.

In other playoff soccer action #3 seed Proctor advanced with a 7-0 home win over Eveleth-Gilbert. The Rails will host the Hermantown Hawks on Saturday. Hermantown advanced into the semi-final round with a 1-0 shutout of Two Harbors.

Kerry Rodd can be reached at kerry@northlandsportsonline.com