BSM Girls Earn State Soccer Berth

The girls soccer team's match against Holy Family Catholic Tuesday was the second section finals game on Red Knight turf that night. Even after the BSM boys' , the girls would not be out-done.

The Red Knights jumped out to a 3-0 halftime lead and would go on to defeat Holy Family Catholic 3-1 in the Section 6A finals to become the second BSM soccer team to advance to the state tournament in the night.

"(Getting to the state tournament) was our goal all season, so it was really nice to see it come true," senior captain and midfielder Aly Hoffman said.

BSM coach Scott Helling-Christy did not take the Fire lightly when preparing his club for this match, and he was pleased with the way his girls executed the gameplan.

"Holy Family has two players that are very dangerous: Maggie Renfro and Alexis Gannon," Helling-Christy said. "One of our goals for tonight was to make sure that we kept those girls in check and try to prevent them from scoring and our defenders did a fantastic job of doing that."

The only Holy Family Catholic goal came three minutes into the second half. Aside from that, the Fire had few opportunities to score.

"We were really planning on marking a few girls," Hoffman said," but we really wanted to play possesion and take it wide and bring it back into the middle and create space because they played a flat back."

Helling-Christy said the girls will have some time to enjoy the victory and that the prep work for his team's next match will begin as soon as they get their draw. And the girls are ready.

"We're going to practice hard and come out harder, because last year was a bit of a downer," Hoffman said, referring to the 2010 team, which was undefeated coming into state and given the top seed, but fell to Chisago Lakes in the first round. "We want to make up for that, and win."

The 2011 girls soccer state tournament starts next Wednesday, Oct. 26.