Lumberjacks Fall In 8-Round Shootout

Photo: Wes Vork-NSO

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Oct 25, 2012

Dwight Cadwell-NSO

ROSEVILLE- When the Cloquet Lumberjacks entered the field in Roseville Thursday afternoon the Lumberjacks were going to focus on defense and try to shut down the high octane Eagles offense and hope to get a scoring chance when they could and take advantage of such. Cloquet did just that, but in the end it was a shoot-out loss that ended the Lumberjacks season as Totino Grace advances to the state semi-finals with a 1-0 victory.

The Lumberjacks facing long time girls soccer power Totino Grace battled back and forth in the first half with the Lumberjacks and the Eagles both putting together two good scoring chances, but neither team could manage a goal in the first half.

The second half Thursday was controlled by the Eagles as they forced play in the Lumberjacks end and put together several scoring chances, but many of those scoring chances were thwarted by Lumberjacks goalie Kenzie Rathe who came up with several huge saves to keep the contest tied at 0-0.

Rathe faced 21 shots by the Eagle’s on the night and had 9 direct saves as the Eagles continued with their offensive onslaught in the two overtimes that followed regulation. Rathe and the Lumberjacks used defensive pressure and continue to play sound defense on the Eagles forwards as the overtimes ended still in a 0-0 tie.

The state quarterfinal match up was then sent into a shootout, and again this game being the battle it was, the shootout would go through eight shooters before the Eagles would end the Lumberjacks dreams of advancing to the state semi-finals on Monday at the Metrodome.

The shootout between the Lumberjacks and the Eagles saw Cloquet going first and after five shooters from both teams took a shot at it, the shootout was tied at 3-3. The shootout went down to the final shooter for the Eagles and it was Nicole Hagen who beat Rathe high to her left as the goal lifted the Eagles to a 5-4 victory in the shootout and the 1-0 win at Roseville Area High School.

The Lumberjacks got shootout goals form Carley Esse, Alyssa Lamirande, Rebecca Hammond, and Emily Rikkola. The Eagles shootout goals were by Alex Miller, Molly Adam, Annmarie Umland, Chaselyn Miller, and the game winner from Nicole Hagen.

The Lumberjacks finish their season with a 12-6-2 record overall on the season. The Eagle’s will advance to face the defending State Class A Champion Blake Bears Monday morning at the Metrodome in Minneapolis. Totino Grace improves to 16-2-2 on the season.

Dwight Cadwell can be reached at dwight@northlandsportsonline.com