Esko runs out of time in State semi

The Esko girls made their mark in the Minnesota State Class A Soccer Tournament this past week. After winning on penalty kicks Oct. 24 over St. Cloud Cathedral in the opening round, Esko fell to top seed Southwest Christian, 2-1, in a tense semifinal game Tuesday at US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.

The first half of play was tightly played with the Esko defensive corps doing a stellar job of not allowing one of the state's best forwards, Maya Johnson, to get free as the teams went to halftime tied at 0.

"We came out in a different formation than we've played in the last five or six games," said Esko coach Sharon Lahti. "It took a while to settle the nerves, but I thought the girls started to really settle in as the first half went on."

Esko started the second half hot as they attacked the Stars net with numerous shots, including one from about 25 yards out by Kaitlyn McConnell that went wide, and a great chance by Paiton Plante to the left side of the Stars goal that was thwarted by the defense.

"At halftime we talked about needing to execute and pick up our pace," Lahti said. "We were able to get a lot of shots, but we couldn't close on that last third of the field to get shots that were a little closer to the goal."

The Stars were able to hold Esko outside the box, causing Esko to shoot from farther out than they would have liked.

With 16 minutes remaining, Britta Koski had a chance from 20 yards out that was denied. Moments later, the Stars were able to spring Johnson free in the Esko zone. Esko goalie Hannah Roemer was unable to snatch the ball away and Johnson pushed it into the open net for a 1-0 lead.

"The ball got through our defense and Hannah came out of the net, but Johnson was able to just touch the ball by her for the goal," Lahti said.

Johnson scored an almost identical goal 10 minutes later as Roemer and an Esko defensive player got tangled up and Johnson rammed home her 26th goal of the season, making it 2-0.

"Our right side defender was a bit injured and Hannah came out to try and get to the ball, but Maya (Johnson) is a good player and she just made a good play for them to score," Lahti said.

Esko fought back valiantly as Reese Kuklinski was able to secure a ball to the right of the Stars net and get it home, cutting the lead to 2-1 with 1 minute, 8 seconds remaining.

"Reese played a great game for us as our center defender all game long," Lahti said. "We finally released Reese later in the game to try and get some offense and she responded by scoring our goal. She is going to have a bright future at Minot State, where she is going to college."

Koski had one last chance from 30 yards away with 5 seconds remaining, but the Stars made the save and the game ended with Esko one win short of playing for a state championship.

The loss dropped Esko into the third-place game against St. Charles Wednesday. Esko won 3-1 with goals from Koski, Maya Stuermer and Celia Preiner.

Quite the run

Esko started the state tournament with an impressive 1-0 win over St. Cloud Cathedral after going 0-0 in regulation, playing double overtime and winning in a shootout.

"Without question the difference was our goalie Hannah Roemer," Lahti said. "We won the section championship and the first game at state because of her and some timely shootout goals, but Hannah was fantastic and we are lucky to have her."

Esko got penalty kick goals from Koski, Kuklinski and Liberty Clifford in the win.

It was the second-straight shootout win for Esko.

The Cloquet boys and girls teams also reached state, after an extraordinary night in section final play where all three area teams won in shootouts.

As reported in last week's Pine Knot, the CEC boys lost 4-2 to Blake in the AA state quarterfinal Oct. 23. The Lumberjacks girls team also lost that night, 2-1, to Orono in yet another tied AA state quarterfinal game that went to overtime and penalty kicks.