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A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
Cloquet forward Kiana Bender stops an Esko pass to bring the attack by Cloquet back into play Tuesday. Bender, an all-state player last year, scored the first goal of the game at 22 minutes, and assisted on the second goal by Natalie Hoffman.
Esko goalkeeper Orie Randall makes the save from under the feet of teammate Aila Gabel as Cloquet forward Alexa Snesrud closes in. Randall made 11 saves during Tuesday's game at Esko.
After opening the season with a win over Forest Lake and then notching an impressive 5-0 win over Tartan on Monday, the Cloquet-Carlton girls soccer team scored an equally impressive victory on Tuesday by beating Esko 3-0 to improve their record to 3-0 on the season.
"The game against Cloquet was much more physical and fast than our opening game against North Branch, which we won," said Esko co-coach Nicole Peterson. "Cloquet is a strong, speedy and skilled team. However, we were able to play with them and have some scoring chances of our own."
Against Esko, the 'Jacks scored a pair of first-half goals and limited the Eskomos to just one shot on goal for the game. Scoring in the first half for Cloquet-Carlton were Kiana Bender in the 22nd minute and Natalie Hoffman on an assist from Bender in the 39th minute.
"We have yet to give up a goal," said Cloquet coach Dustin Randall. "Our back line and our team press has been working very well and is something we focus on frequently at practice. I don't really remember being threatened at any point last night against Esko. We had great work by the team."
While the Lumberjacks were limiting the Eskomos shots on goal they themselves were peppering Esko goaltender Orie Randall with 14 shots on a rainy and wet night. The new Esko goaltender finished with 11 saves.
"As far as our offense, I thought it was a sloppy game in bad weather, but we did a good job settling in and creating chances
from lots of different areas," said coach Randall. "The Esko keeper had a very good game making some very nice stops, and I thought kept the game closer than it could have been."
The Lumberjacks goalie, Gracie Meagher, finished with one save on one shot.
The second half saw Alexa Snesrud score in the 58th minute for the final score of 3-0.
On Monday the 'Jacks took a 5-0 win over Tartan in a game that saw Cloquet
-Carlton score all five of their goals in the first half.
Katie Turner scored in the sixth minute on an assist from Bender. Then Bender scored in the 12th minute with the assist going to Brenna Mattson. Snesrud chipped in with a tally in the 18th minute with Bender assisting and then it was Snesrud again scoring in the 25th minute with the assist going to Brooklyn Simmonds. Cloquet-Carlton wrapped up the scoring in the 30th minute when Natalie Hoffman tacked on a goal with Bender notching the assist.
For the game, Meagher made four saves to get the shutout.
