Cloquet Girls Soccer Win Section 7A Championship

Wes Vork-NSO

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October 22

Wes Vork-NSO

Cloquet and Esko-Carlton girls soccer teams met at Public Schools Stadium Thursday evening with a trip to the state tournament on the line. It was the second year in a row the top two teams in Section 7A met in the finals. This year, however, Cloquet’s opponent was the cross-town rival Esko-Carlton Eskomos. Last year, the Lumberjack’s dropped a heartbreaker in a shootout. This time, only 80 minutes were needed to decide a champion with Cloquet winning the game 2-1.

As expected, the game was a tough match between two evenly talented teams. Cloquet opened the scoring first when Lena Swander blasted a shot from outside the 18-yard box beating Emily Johnson, EC’s goalkeeper, at the 29:29 minute mark of the first half. Ironically, Swander got an assist on the play from Cloquet’s Emily Johnson.

Esko-Carlton’s best scoring chance in the first half came with 15 minutes left when Amanda Bergstedt rifled a left-footed shot, which hit the cross bar above the outstretched hand of Cloquet goalkeeper Kaitrin Rathe.

Esko-Carlton came out of the locker room at halftime with a renewed sense of urgency and dominated midfield play for the first ten minutes of the half. EC senior midfielder Kate Marquis tied the game at the 17:09 mark of the second half scoring on a
loose ball
in front of the net.

Fans, coaches and players couldn’t help but think about last year when Cloquet beat EC in the semi-finals in a shootout, only to lose to Hermantown in the finals, again in a shootout. Cloquet goalkeeper Kaitrin Rathe told NSO, “I kept thinking, I’ve got
to keep it [the ball] out, I can’t let one go in. Not wanting to go to a shootout was definitely going through my mind.”

Losing in the section finals last year was also on the mind of Cloquet junior midfielder Jesse Ryan, when she took the ball deep in her own defensive end dribbling through a plethora of EC defenders, going “coast to coast” for her eventual game-winning goal. Ryan, who scored a shootout goal against Esko-Carlton and hit the post against Hermantown in last year’s shootouts, didn’t want to leave things to chance either, telling NSO, “Wanting to go to state was on my mind the whole way down the field, that and I have missed the net in the past so I was concentrating to make sure I put it in the net.”

Cloquet head coach Dustin Randall, who was hired only a week before the season started, was very pleased with and proud of his squad, commenting to NSO after the game, “I am really proud of my girls, they have worked very hard all year.
Again our team played solid defensively.
For how much pressure and attack Esko threw at us last night, we only gave up 5 shots on goal and kept the ball out of the net enough to get the win. I dont think we are ready to be done yet, there is still some fight left in us.”

After a championship game, the winning team receives gold medals while the runner up receives silver. During the ceremony, there will undoubtedly be smiles for the victors and tears for the losing team. However, this ceremony was different. Although Esko-Carlton was visibly disappointed in the outcome of the game, the relationship and camaraderie between the girls of both teams was touching and heartfelt, as hugs were freely exchanged with EC as they wished their “cross-town rival” good luck at the state tournament.

Cloquet netminder Rathe made 4 saves on the night, while Esko-Carlton keeper Emily Johnson tallied 11 saves

Cloquet will find out who they will face on Sunday during the state tournament banquet. The top four teams in the state are seeded according to their order of ranking while the bottom four teams randomly draw their seed number.

Wes Vork can be reached at wes@northlandsportsonline.com