Cloquet Girls Advance To Section Finals With Shootout

Oct 16, 2012

Kerry Rodd-NSO

After falling behind 2-0 in the second half the Cloquet girls soccer team rallied for overtime, shootout win over Princeton in the Section 7A semi-finals on Monday night.

Princeton gained a lead in the 25th minute on a goal by Brittany Beikman. Beikman was awarded a penalty shot when the Tigers made a run at the net and a Lumberjacks player coming in to help was just a bit late and got the player before the ball on a slide.

In the 54th minute things looked bleak for Cloquet when the Tigers notched their second goal of the game by Beikman as they went up 2-0.

The Lumberjacks fought back nine minutes later on a goal by Emily Wangen on an assist by Emily Rikkola. That goal cut the lead to 2-1. Cloquet tied the game in the 68th minute when freshman Kayla Baker pumped home a goal with an assist to Kristi Konietzko.

After the Konietzko goal, the game buttoned down defensively and went through two scoreless overtime

sessions setting up the shootout in which the Lumberjacks scored three goals on the Princeton net while Cloquet goalie Kenzie Rathe allowed only one goal.

“Great show of heart and character to fight back. My girls gave it all and all our hours of sprinting paid off,” said Jacks coach Dustin Randall. “Once we got to PKs we knew we had the advantage with Kenzie in net. It was a fun game.”

Cloquet got off to a good start in the penalty kick session when Konietzko scored, but the Tigers matched that score to make it 1-1. On their second shot the Jacks were held off the board when Carley Esse’s shot sailed just wide, however Rathe stopped the Tigers on their shot keeping the game even at 1-1. Gracie Sinisalo gave the Jacks a 2-1 lead on Cloquet’s third shot and Rathe came up big with a save on Princeton allowing Cloquet to stay on top. On their fourth shot the Jacks got a goal by Rikkola which made it 3-1 and putting the Tigers in the precarious position of need to score in order to stay in the game, but again Rathe slammed the door setting off a Cloquet celebration.

The Lumberjacks will now advance to Thursday’s championship game against Esko-Carlton at Public Schools Stadium in Duluth. The game originally scheduled for 7:00pm has been moved up to 6:00pm to accommodate a later 8:00pm game. The boys Section 7A finals, was slated to be played in Chisago Lakes has been moved to PSS because Duluth Marshall and Duluth Denfeld made the finals.

Kerry Rodd can be reached at kerry@northlandsportsonline.com