Duluth East Sneaks Past CEC in Overtime Thriller

Tyler Peterson-NSO

On a beautiful night for soccer, it was Duluth East who found themselves on the winning end of an overtime thriller over their rivals, the CEC Lumberjacks. The final score of the action packed evening would be 3-2.

The action started just 6 minutes into the game when junior Ben Pietsch capitalized on a rebound off of a shot from senior Alex Derocher that went off the cross bar and deflected perfectly for Pietsch to smoke it into the net from 8 yards out, giving the Lumberjacks the early 1-0 lead. CEC would be at it again just 17 minutes later when junior Nolan Ripp hit the back of the net with a kick from the outside at the 23rd minute from the assist by senior Domenico Tomaselli, giving the Lumberjacks the 2-0 lead going into halftime.

The second half started off quickly, just like the first, when Duluth East junior Colin Hietapelto would connect with senior Trygve Rennan who nailed one to the bottom right of the net from 16 yards out to narrow the Lumberjacks lead to 2-1. The Hounds wouldn’t be done there when Quinn Whiting connected with a beautiful header from 5 yards out on a perfectly placed corner kick from senior Cory Erickson, to knot the game up at 2-2. Regulation would end at 2-2 sending this rivalry game into an overtime for the second consecutive year.

In overtime, it was a fast paced start with both teams getting opportunities on the opponents side of the field, but neither teams were able to get any shots off in the first half of the overtime. The second half of the overtime, however, would be differently when senior Wes Anderson would score on an unassisted goal from 20 yards out with just 3 minutes remaining. CEC would put it into panic mode, trying to do whatever they could to get a chance at scoring, but to no avail, as the Duluth East Grey Hounds would come out with the victory, 3-2.

In the nets on the night, CEC junior goal keeper Halen Danielson would have a fantastic night, making 15 saves and showing some athleticism making several impressive and big saves for the Lumberjacks keeping them alive. Duluth East junior goalie Hugh VanScoy would fail to make a save on the night.

Duluth East improved to 10-3-1 with the victory and continued their 6 game winning streak. The Grey Hounds will be back in action on Wednesday, October 2nd when they face off against the Hermantown Hawks (8-4-2) at home starting at 6:00 PM. The Lumberjacks fell to 7-5-1 on the year with the loss, but look to bounce back when they travel to take on the Proctor Rails (4-5-1) on Thursday, October 3rd at 4:30 PM

Tyler Peterson can be contacted at tpeterson@northlandsportsonline.com