Cloquet Girls Advance In Playoffs, Face #1 Seed

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Oct 17

Kerry Rodd-NSO

In the first round of the Section 7A girl’s soccer tournament Zimmerman upset Grand Rapids. They were hoping to do the same to Cloquet in Cloquet on Saturday, but the Lumberjacks made sure there would be no repeat as they won 4-1 to advance to the sectional semifinals on Tuesday at Chisago Lakes.

The Jacks came out slowly against Zimmerman and appeared to need some type of momentum builder. That momentum happened in the 17th minute when Kelsey Anderson launched a long shot at the Zimmerman goalie and the rebound came out to a waiting Sadie Micke who pounced on it giving the Jacks a 1-0 lead.

“After a completely flat first 15 minutes, we finally started playing and scored on our first two shots,” said Coach
Dustin Randall. “We controlled the ball in their end most of the first half with the wind.”

Cloquet’s second goal came just a minute later when Carley Esse blasted in a long shot from the corner of the penalty box that banked off the post and in with an assist going to Jessie Ryan and the Jacks led it 2-0 at halftime.

Zimmerman pulled to within 2-1 on a shot that slipped through the hands of the Cloquet goalie early in the second half.

However, the Jacks bounced back with back-to-back goals by Micke and Esse to go up 4-1. Micke’s goal took place in front of the net on a scramble and Esse’s goal came on a crossing pass from Jessie Ryan that Esse knocked in off a one-timer that tucked itself into the side of the net.

“We played a much better second half and again controlled the ball for most of the half,” recalled Randall. “I think we are starting to get excited knowing that we are just need to win two more games to go to state, but they also realize that the ‘real’ tournament starts now with a quality team.”

The team Randall is talking about is Chisago Lakes which was the #1 seed in the sectional tournament. Cloquet will travel to Chisago Lakes this Tuesday afternoon.

Kerry Rodd can be reached at kerry@northlandsportsonline.com