Cloquet Girls Soccer Advances To Section 7A Finals

Dan Saletel-NSO

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Oct 20

Kerry Rodd-NSO

Talk before the Cloquet versus Hermantown Section 7A semi-final girl’s soccer game centered around the weather. Would the weather, which was cold and rainy, be an equalizer for the Hawks or would the Lumberjacks depth and superior ability prevail? In the end, the Jacks proved to be just too much for the Hawks and Cloquet won 4-0,
never seriously threatened by the Hawks.

“Both teams had to play on the same field,” said Cloquet coach Dustin Randall. “We just wanted to play our game and come out strong.”

The Lumberjacks came out strong and continually applied pressure on Hawk goalie Julie Gilbert. With 26:46 remaining in the first half, the Lumberjacks hit the pipe to Gilbert’s left and it proved to be a just a glimpse of the onslaught that would follow.

“Our goal was to use our strength to counter attack,” commented Randall. “Once we got the first goal it just took off for us.”

Cloquet finally got on the board with 6:39 remaining in the first half when Jessie Ryan fed a crossing pass to Courtney Esse, who buried the shot to make it 1-0. Before the half ended, the Jacks went up 2-0 on a Haley Bassett goal, who rifled a shot just under the cross bar with 4:12 remaining to make it 2-0.

Perhaps the turning point of the game came in the closing minute of the first half when the Hawks got loose in the box in the Cloquet end. However, Jacks goalie Kaitrin Rathe made a sprawling save to keep it 2-0.

“We got a little loose defensively on that play,” mentioned Randall. “Kaitrin came up big and that was huge to go into halftime with a 2-0 lead.”

Early in the second half, Chelsea Cossin managed to split the Lumberjack defense, but again Rathe stymied the Hawks as Cloquet held tight to the 2-0 edge.

Cloquet’s Emily Johnson gave the Jacks a 3-0 lead with 30:33 left in regulation on a right foot kick from the 18-yard mark to make it 3-0 and at that point the rain, which had stopped midway through the first half, began to fall heavily and the hopes of Hermantown appeared to melt away.

“The nice thing we have is the depth in scoring,” said Randall. “We have a number of players who can score for us and that makes it a bit harder to defend against.”

That would prove true on the Jacks final goal when Katie Pappas picked up a loose ball in the box to the left of Gilbert off a free kick by Jessie Ryan with 23:46 left in the second stanza. Ryan’s crossing kick had been disrupted by the Hawk defense, but Pappas found the loose ball amid a mad scramble in front of Gilbert.

Perhaps lost in the game was the fact that the Cloquet defense did a strong job of slowing down the Hawks and not allowing them to get started offensively.

“We have three senior defenders and they work well together,” explained Randall. “We also have midfielders who are willing to work and come back and help and that makes a huge defensive difference.”

Cloquet goalkeeper Rathe finished with five saves while Gilbert made 12 saves for the Hawks.

The Lumberjacks will play for the Section 7A title against Esko-Carlton on Thursday night at Public Schools Stadium in Duluth at 5pm.

Kerry Rodd can be reached at kerry@northlandsportsonline.com