Sports
Simley's Season Ends in Shootout
After a scoreless regulation and two overtimes, visiting St. Croix Lutheran knocks the Spartans out of the Class 4A Section playoffs with a 4-2 penalty kick victory
For 100 minutes Tuesday night, St. Croix Lutheran and the Simley High School boys soccer battled hard for advantage during regulation time and two scoreless, 10-minute overtimes.
But the Crusaders gained a quick advantage in the penalty kick period and went on to drop the Spartans 4 shots to 2 in a Section 4A boys soccer semifinal. Simley ends the season with a 7-8-3 record.
The Crusaders shot first in the five-player penalty kick and gained a 1-0 lead after Bret Padfield scored and Simley captain Joe Trenzeluk's shot missed.
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Simley's Mario Soto and Zack Myran scored on the next two kicks and when Simley goalie Nathan Spores blocked a shot by Reagan Tshibangu, the Spartans had a 2-all tie after three shots.
Spores shot next, but his kick hit the crossbar and bounced away. St. Croix Lutheran's San Danner scored, then Ben Ulrich then kicked the clincher.
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"We played well and we were sort of unlucky on the day," Simley head coach Noel Quinn said. "We just couldn't score. We've had a problem with that all season. I thought we did enough maybe to win the game, but St. Croix Lutheran played really well."
"Penalties are a lottery," Quinn added. "Sometimes the team who plays the best in the game doesn't win the shootout and that's kind of the way it worked out for us the last two years, so maybe this was payback a little bit."
St. Croix Lutheran (10-6-2) will play South St. Paul (13-4) for the section title Tuesday.
