The Mandan St. Mary’s High School boys soccer team traveled north to take on the host Minot North Sentinels looking for their second win of the season. The home team was looking for their first home win of their freshman year, but the Braves came away with a 4-0 victory.
“They (the Braves) didn’t score in the run of the game today.” Minot North High School boys soccer head coach Ellen Jevens spoke about the team’s growth this year. “They scored three times from corner kicks and we even scored an own goal defensively.”
The first goal came just nine minutes into the game when Braves sophomore James Huber passed the ball to junior Caleb Meidinger to score on the first corner kick. Connor Lundeen scored the second goal on the next corner kick with an assist from senior Parker Vander Vost about halfway through the first half.
With nine minutes left in the first half, Braves sophomore Axton Hoepfner scored the third goal off Vander Vorst’s second corner kick of the first half.
Learning from their lesson from the first half, the team made sure to avoid a repeat of the corner kick goals in the second half, and Mandan St. Mary’s scored a goal of their own midway through the second half to take the 4-0 victory.
The visiting Braves played very physical football, slamming the Sentinels’ smaller, younger players to the ground multiple times. Minot North’s leading scorer, sophomore Logan Aubit, was in obvious pain in his left wrist/arm from the constant contact and took time to get up multiple times.
Minot North goalkeeper sophomore Griffin Waldo made 14 saves while in net for the game, while Mandan St. Mary’s senior Tony Piccolo made nine saves for the Braves, which was the visiting team’s second shutout of the season.
The Sentinels allowed 21 goals in the first half and scored three in the second half as they improved with adjustments and experience. They have allowed just 17 goals between the 40th and 80th minutes this season and have scored just six.
Minot North (1-7-0, 1-9-0) visits Bismarck High (2-5-1, 2-5-1) on Thursday, Sept. 12, before hosting Jamestown (8-0-0, 8-0-0) at Sentinels Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 14. WDA Football Action in Minot
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