Hermantown Eliminates Chisago Lakes in Girls 7A Soccer Playoffs

Wes Vork-NSO

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October 17

Joe Vork-NSO

The fourth-seeded Hermantown girls’ soccer team knew coming into their match with the fifth-seeded Chisago Lakes squad that they would need to play a better game than they did in September when they were defeated by the Wildcats 1-0. This time it was the Hawks who came out of the 1-0 game victorious.

In a game of two evenly matched teams, it often comes down to a lone miscue to be the difference in the game and today was no exception. Nearly 12 minutes into the game, Chisago Lakes was whistled for a hand ball in the box, setting up a Hermantown penalty kick. The Hawk’s Megan Mullen was awarded the kick and blasted the ball past the right shoulder of Mary Burch, the Wildcat’s goalkeeper, for a 1-0 lead. This would be the only ball that would find the back of the net for either team for the duration of the entire game.

Chisago Lakes had the first legitimate scoring chance ten minutes into the game when the Wildcats’ Cassandra Trandahl got behind the Hermantown defense only to be stopped by Hawk’s goalkeeper Julia Gilbert. Hermantown countered with an excellent opportunity by All-Conference forward Chelsea Cussin on a point-blank shot inside the box with two minutes left in the first half.

The second half was evenly played with both teams seeing limited scoring opportunities. However, Gilbert made an outstanding save on Chisago Lakes’ Ashley Gibson at the 14:00 mark of the second half to preserve her shutout.

Gilbert finished the game with 10 saves for Hermantown, while Burch stopped 10 of the 11 shots she faced for Chisago Lakes.

Hermantown will be back in action Tuesday, October 20th when they travel to Cloquet to square off against the Lumberjacks at 5:00 pm at Bromberg Field.

Joe Vork can be reached at joe@northlandsportsonline.com