'Jacks, Esko get top playoff seeds

Both the Esko and Cloquet/Cartlon girls soccer teams received the No. 1 seed in their respective section tournaments: Cloquet/Carlton in Section 7AA and Esko in Section 7A. Both teams also finished up the regular season in Esko last Thursday, with the hometown team edging the Lumberjacks 2-1.

While Cloquet/Carlton waited until Thursday to open tournament play, Esko opened the playoffs at home Monday against Two Harbors. Two Harbors was the lone unseeded team entering the 7A tournament and entered with a record of 2-11-3, while Esko finished the regular season with a record of 11-3-1. Esko polished off the Agates by a 6-0 score to move on to the second round of the playoffs.

"We started off the season much like we normally do," said Esko head coach Sharon Lahti. "We started from scratch and spent a lot of time trying to figure out the different puzzle pieces and then trying to find a groove."

When Esko lost a 3-2 game to Duluth Marshall Sept. 19, that gave the team the impetus to do some soul-searching.

"We felt that coming off that loss that the girls' needed to figure some things out," Lahti said. "We gave them a day off and let them work some things out and now we are headed in the right trajectory."

Esko proved that with its win over the Lumberjacks. Up until that point, Cloquet-Crlton had only one loss and had beaten Esko early in the season.

"Heading into the Cloquet/Carlton game we felt very confident," Lahti said.

While Esko had a small midseason issue, the Lumberjacks were the complete opposite. They steamrolled through their schedule with a record of 13-1-1 before the loss to Esko in the final game.

"Esko, especially at their field, is always a tough one," said Lumberjacks coach Dustin Randall. "We rested some players that game, but at the end of the day they played much harder than we did and deservedly got the win."

Randall is hopeful that the final game loss will serve keep his team sharp.

"It will be a good wake-up call for us and in the end it will be a net positive," Randall said. "My biggest gripe with that game is that we gave up the game from a winning position in the second half. We typically do a very good job of grinding out games once we get the lead."

This season the Lumberjacks reeled off 11 wins via shutout, which means the 'Jacks are a very stingy defensive team.

"I love how our back line works, but there is always room for improvement. Team defense is something we stress from day one," Randall said. "We have had some good games, and some good performances with outcomes that match. But again, there is always room for improvement and we have been far from perfect. Any one of the top 5 seeds is good enough to win the section, so we need to be ready."

While Esko opened with a win on Monday, the Lumberjacks played Denfeld on Thursday after this edition of the newspaper went to press. Denfeld had opened the playoffs with a 2-1 win over North Branch. Denfeld was the No. 4 seed and the Vikings were No. 5.

"Two Harbors was missing three starters and you could tell that made a difference," Lahti said of Esko's win Monday. "We also had a player who just got pulled up to varsity, Lucy Barta, who scored her first varsity goal and she did it in the playoffs, so that was fun."

Esko defeated No. 5 seed Legacy Christian Academy 6-0 Wednesday.

All conference

Three Cloquet/Carlton girls were awarded first-team all conference honors, including Lauren Hughes, Tenique Moose and Addison Sandman. Ellise Boyd-Affias, Makena Smith and Rylee Senich all made the second-team all conference team.