Section 7A Boys Soccer Playoffs Underway

Click here for the Section 7A boys playoff brackets

Oct 11, 2012

Kerry Rodd-NSO

Section 7A boys soccer playoff action kicked off yesterday and both Cloquet-Esko-Carlton and Proctor emerged from the first round with victories.

The Rails used solid depth to defeat the Tigers by having five different players score goals in the game en-route to a 5-1 win over Princeton. Aaron Opoien scored the first goal of the game in the 10th minute on an assist by Jake Kuno and then Kuno followed with a tally of his own in the 23rd minute with an assist from Parker Strongitharm. Wyatt Lindberg gave the Rails a 3-0 halftime lead with a marker in the 33rd minute of the first half.

Princeton cut the lead to 3-1 just three minutes into the second half on a goal by Ryan Smith, but Freddy Kiefer scored back-to-back goals for the Rails in the 48th and 54th minute to salt the game away.

Michael Petoletti finished with four saves in the Proctor net, while Tiger goalie Reid Eggen made 20 stops on 25 shots by Proctor.

The CEC Lumberjacks were also winners on Thursday; The Jacks got two goals including a penalty shot from Ben Pietsch to defeat Hermantown 2-0.

The road team came out the victors in the other two Section 7A playoff games. #9 seed Eveleth-Gilbert defeated #8 Becker by a score of 3-2 and #10 North Branch made the trek all the way up to Hibbing worthwhile by beating the Bluejackets 2-1.

Top seeded Duluth Marshall, #2 Seed Duluth Denfeld and #3 seed Grand Rapids all had first round byes.

Kerry Rodd can be reached at kerry@northlandsportsonline.com