Sports
Southwest High Lakers Advance to State Soccer Semifinals
Lakers break away from a 1-all tie in the second half to rout Anoka 5-1 and gain the Class AA boys state soccer semifinals
It wasn’t a perfect game for the Lakers Thursday in a state quarterfinal matchup against Anoka. But it wasn’t that far off either.
The Lakers dominated the action for long stretches and advanced to the Class AA state soccer semifinals with an impressive 5-1 win over Anoka at Park of Cottage Grove stadium.
“We were doing a lot of movement and a lot of teamwork,” said senior attacker Liban Ayanie.
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Southwest (15-3-1) will play top-seeded and undefeated Eastview (19-0-1) in one of the two semifinal games Tuesday in the Metrodome. The game kicks off at 2 p.m.
Maple Grove (13-4-2) will play third-seeded Eden Prairie (14-3-3) in the other semifinal. That game starts at noon. The two winners of Tuesday’s semifinals will meet for the state championship Thursday in the Metrodome at 3 p.m.
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“I was happy with our teamwork,” said Southwest head coach Jamie Plaisance. “And I think everybody did their job."
“It’s fun to work with them when we’re at our best and I think we’re starting to approach our best,” he added. “There were two chunks of the game where we were playing well, and that was the very beginning of the game and kind of the middle third of the second half. And I think those two chunks we were able to overwhelm them. But I don’t know if it was our most complete game from beginning to end.”
Michael Pulkrabek scored just 6:48 into the game and for a long time his tally was the only one on the scoreboard. The Lakers took a 1-0 lead into intermission.
Anoka finally got on the board and tied the game at 1-all on a goal by Mitch Dorale about nine minutes into the second half.
But the second half was a much more wide-open affair and Southwest outscored the Anoka Tornadoes 4-0 in the final 30 minutes for a dominating win.
“We really brought the intensity in the second half and started playing our game,” said Southwest sophomore defender Zach Neiberger. “We were moving the ball around a lot.”
It took the Lakers just 45 seconds to regain the lead as Shane Marshall scored on a penalty kick for a 2-1 advantage.
Anoka accidently put a goal in its own net to make it a 3-1 game, and Mohamud Abdi and Liban Ayanle blew past Anoka defenders in the closing quarter for back-to-back goals for the Lakers.
In all, Southwest outshot Anoka 12-4.
