Sports Roundup: Knights Sweep Sectional Soccer Openers

Thursday was a good day for the St. Michael-Albertville soccer teams as both the Knights boys and girls squads surged to victories in the Section 8AA quarterfinals and will now host semifinal matchups on Saturday.

Boys Soccer

Justin McLain was a one-man wrecking ball for the second-seeded STMA boys soccer team, scoring five goals in the Knights' 7-2 defeat of Mississippi 8 rival and No. 7 seed Rogers.

Steven Jones and Benjamin Bridell also scored for the victorious home side, with goalkeeper Cole Christian making six saves in the win.

STMA hosts third-seeded Elk River at 11 a.m. Saturday in the sectional semifinals.

Girls Soccer

The second-seeded STMA girls soccer team topped No. 7 St. Cloud Tech 3-1 in its sectional opener at home.

Individual statistics were not made available. The Knights host No. 6 seed Moorhead at 1 p.m. Saturday.

Cross-Country

STMA's Brendan Sage was the individual victor in the boys race at the Mississippi 8 Conference meet at Fox Hollow Golf Club on Thursday, with the Knights girls finishing second and boys third in the team competition.

Maddi Sjelin was the first girls runner not from conference champion Monticello to finish, coming in fifth in 15 minutes, 42.9 seconds. She was followed by Presley Norby (15:47.5) in seventh, Erin Autio (16:41.1) in 14th, Tori Hamre (16:54.9) in 18th and Katelyn Blais (16:58.0) in 20th.

For the boys, Chase Cayo (17:11.9) took ninth, Alex Aman (17:13.8) placed 11th, Derek Johanson (17:34.5) took 16th and Jake Monseth (17:39.9) was 19th.

Results from contests involving the STMA volleyball and girls swim/dive teams were not reported.