The No. 1-seed from the East Region, Fargo Shanley-Oak Grove, wanted to get to a fast start in its appearance Thursday at the North Dakota state boys soccer tournament, starting with the West Region No. 4-seed Bismarck St. Mary’s - a team the Deacons beat 4-0 and 2-0 earlier this season.
Shanley-Oak Grove, which has only allowed eight goals on the season, scored the game-winning goal a little more than three minutes into the game on its way to a dominant 4-0 first-round win at Cushman Field.
“Perfect start for us,” Deacons coach Michael Breker said. “We got to play a lot of our subs. Scoring early was something we’ve hardly been able to do all year. Getting those (first) two goals in was big for our morale and big for what we wanted to do as far as getting some subs in and getting some kids off the field.”
T.J. Anderson made a centering pass to Jake Reinholz, who headed in the game’s first goal at 3:20. Fifteen minutes later, Nick Leier made a long lead-pass across the middle of the field to Tyler Bossert, who beat Saints’ goalie Andrew Huber for the 2-0 lead.
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With just over five minutes before the half, Anderson found a cutting Matt Russell for a three-goal halftime lead.
“Shanley has a great attack,” St. Mary’s coach Peter Manstrom said. “Every mental lapse, not just by our defenders but our defensive half, it seemed liked Shanley was able to capitalize on some great passes. Credit to their attack. They were always right on the spot, sending a guy through and getting the ball to him.”
Zakk Jamieson scored one minute into the second half for the final goal. Aaron Syvrud put a shot on net that Huber was unable to handle and Jamieson followed with a rebound goal.
Breker said the Deacons, despite being the favorite, didn’t expect anything coming into the game.
“We’ve had expectations in the past and they didn’t quite go the same way,” he said. “So we didn’t expect a thing. We were glad it went this way, let’s put it that way.”
