Esko-Carlton Hands Hermantown First Girls Soccer Loss

Wes Vork-NSO

For Additional Photos Click Here To View Our Photo Gallery

Sept 17

Wes Vork-NSO

HERMANTOWN – For those who were looking for Tuesday’s games to sort out the pecking order of the area girls soccer teams, the wait just got a bit longer. Esko-Carlton handed the hosting Hermantown Hawks its first loss of the year with a dominating 5-1 win. In addition, with a 9-3 Cloquet victory over Two Harbors, the second half of the season is shaping up to be very entertaining.

Amanda Bergstedt had a huge night for Esko, netting two goals and two assists as
the Eskomos
handed the Hawks their first loss of the season.

Esko-Carlton opened the scoring in the 11th minute when Bergstedt drew the Hawks goalkeeper to the left side and made a nice pass to Kelsey Mudek on the right for the goal. The Eskomos would extend their lead to 2-0 when Rachel Ofstie scored after Bergstedt placed a ball that had landed in front of the net from a Kate Marquis corner kick in the 28th minute.

Five minutes into the second half, Bergstedt scored on a kick from the far right side of the net, putting the ball just inside the left post and giving Esko-Carlton the 3-0 notch up. The Hawks didn’t roll over, however. Just 30 seconds later, Chelsea Cassin got the Hawks back in the game and on the board with a goal that cut the lead to 3-1.

Unfortunately for Hermantown, that would be as close as they would get as Tess Mattson scored in the 50th minute for the Eskomos with the assist going to Hope Anderson. Mattson’s goal capped off a wild flurry that saw three goals scored in a five minute period.

Bergstedt finished off the scoring when she picked up her second goal of the night in the 69th minute, giving Esko-Carlton the 5-1 victory.

Emily Johnson made 11 saves for Esko-Carlton, while Hermantown goalkeeper Jenna Illikainen tallied eight for the Hawks.

With the win, the Eskomos join Hermantown, Cloquet, and Two Harbors in a battle for the top seed in the upcoming playoffs. Looking at the win-loss column, Yogi Berra’s one liners such as “The future ain’t what it used to be.” seem easier to make sense of.

Esko beat Hermantown, but lost to Cloquet. Cloquet beat Two Harbors and tied Hermantown. Meanwhile, Hermantown has tied both Cloquet and Two Harbors, while losing to Esko-Carlton. The loss to Cloquet is Two Harbors fifth of the season. However, all of the losses have come against quality teams. The Agates played Hermantown to a 1-1 tie.

All of this should make for an interesting second half of the season. As close as these teams appear to be, when mixed in with a couple of teams from the south part of the section, flipping a coin may be the best method to predict a section champion. Don’t be surprised if the actual method used to determine the state-bound team is a shootout.

Wes Vork can be reached at wes@northlandsportsonline.com