The soccer season ended for the Caledonia/Spring Grove/Houston girls, who with the No. 7 seed was eliminated from the Section 1A Tournament at No. 2 seed Dover-Eyota by a score of 5-1. It was a windy Oct. 13 evening for a game played on wet and somewhat slippery grass. The Eagles, who had previously defeated the Warriors during conference action (2-1 and 10-0), took a quick lead with a goal during the fourth minute. Midway through the first half, D-E added three goals within three minutes on the way to a comfortable 4-0 halftime lead.
File photo by Lee Epps
“In the second half, we were able to control the ball a little bit more,” said Warrior coach Chris Jandt, “but still struggled to get any good shots on goal to test their keeper.” But they did finally score with about three minutes remaining after eighth grader Siri Konkel deposited a corner kick in front of the goal. The ball came out of a scramble to junior Mikaela Konkel, who sent it into the net to make it 4-1.
The final D-E goal came with just five seconds remaining when Cal/SG/Hou goalkeeper Josie Foster came out to disrupt a breakaway, but the ball found an Eagle forward who put it into the open goal.
Foster saved nine of 14 Eagle shots, while the Warriors managed only three shots on goal.
Considering the 4-10-2 season, Jandt said, “Our record does not show how hard the girls work and how well we played. We had a few games that we lost with late goals, but the girls always came back ready to go again.
“Our seniors – Katelyn Seymour, Grace Denstad, Autumn Meiners, Therese Jore, Hailey Alfson and Marley Sherbon – gave us a great year, and I could not thank them enough for their leadership that they showed all year. They have been through a lot in the past six years with the program and really became a core group of players to build off of. They are leaving the program in a better place than when they started and instilled the values of the program into the underclassmen.”