Friday will be a busy day for Woodbury High School senior
Xander Anderson. He’s a multi-sport athlete who happens to play two sports in
the same season.
At 10:15 a.m. Friday, Anderson and his Royals soccer
teammates will face Wayzata in the Class 3A state championship game at U.S.
Bank Stadium. And that evening at 7 o’clock, he will pick up his other sport,
football, as the kicker when the Royals (7-2) meet Eden Prairie (7-2) in the
Class 6A playoffs.
Anderson has made three of four field-goal attempts
this season and 16 of 19 extra-point kicks. He scored three goals Tuesday as
the Royals defeated Maple Grove 4-2 in the soccer state semifinals.
“It’s going to be a great two wins on Friday,” he
said. “It’s going to be a splendid day.”
Hill-Murray, the top-seeded team in the
Class 2A boys state soccer tournament, gave up three goals
against Richfield in Tuesday's semifinals, which is one more than the Pioneers had given up all season.
They defeated the Spartans 4-3, winning in a shootout in Tuesday’s semifinals.
Hill-Murray, which will take a 21-0 record into Friday’s
state championship game against DeLaSalle, gave up single goals in a regular-season
game against Hastings (a 7-1 win) and in a Section 4 tournament win over
Columbia Heights (4-1).
Richfield’s goals Tuesday all came in the first half
before Hill-Murray rallied to tie the score late in the second half and win the
shootout.
“That's the
most skilled team we've played and the biggest battle that we've been in,”
Hill-Murray coach Jeff Zupfer said of Richfield (11-5-4). “We've given up two
goals all year in 20 games. They got three on us today and they earned every
single one of them, but credit to our guys for battling back.”
The Stillwater girls soccer roster
includes 10 ninth-graders, five in the starting lineup. The Ponies had an
outstanding season, taking a 17-2 record into the Class 3A state semifinals,
where they fell to Rosemount 1-0 on Wednesday at U.S. Bank Stadium. Stillwater
will meet Wayzata in Thursday’s third-place game at the West St. Paul Regional
Athletic Center.
Rosemount’s only regular-season loss came against Stillwater
by a 2-0 score on Sept. 6. The Irish (20-1), who will meet Edina in the state championship
game on Friday at U.S. Bank Stadium, were in a similar situation as Stillwater
a few years ago. The Irish are now flush with veteran players.
“That
Rosemount group from four years ago is where we are today,” said Stillwater
coach Mike Huber. “Four years ago they were a bunch of young freshmen, a couple
of seniors and some others and that's kind of who we are today. I expect that we'll
be back.”
Rosemount
coach Gretchen Stramel agreed with Huber’s assessment.
“We have five
girls who were part of it when they were freshmen and we ended up in third
place. Yes, it’s very similar with Stillwater. They have a ton of very young
talent that doesn't look like they're young at all. … Playing Stillwater, I
wouldn't have been able to pick out their freshmen. They just have great
players. And they will only get better.”
--MSHSL media specialist John Millea has been the leading voice of
Minnesota high school activities for decades. Follow him on Twitter @MSHSLjohn
and listen to "Preps Today with John Millea” wherever you get podcasts.
Contact John at jmillea@mshsl.org
No comments:
Post a Comment