East Grand Forks Senior High took a 13-1-2 record and the north subsection’s No. 1 seed into the Minnesota Section 8A girls soccer playoffs. Despite the record and the standings, Senior High didn’t stand pat heading into the postseason.
Brynn Hillman scored two goals and Kara Ellis one Monday as the Green Wave handed Detroit Lakes a 3-0 setback in the quarterfinal round of the Section 8A playoffs. Senior High hosts Bemidji in a 6 p.m. semifinal game Tuesday, Oct., 15.
Senior High never trailed after Hillman took a pass on a corner kick from Chloe Torgerson and booted the shot low into the corner of the net for a 1-0 lead just 1:37 into the game.
“Chloe put the ball right where it needed to be,’’ Senior High coach Jessica Bina said. “Brynn put the shot right where it needed to be. They couldn’t have executed it better.
“It was one of a couple new plays on corner kicks we put in. We’ve scored on it in practice several times. We used it in our last game. When you play a team twice already, you have to throw in some new looks for the third time.’’
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Senior High had a pair of 1-goal wins against the Lakers this season.
“We had the mentality that it would be another dogfight,’’ Hillman said. “We really emphasized getting goals right away. It took some pressure off. It gave us some momentum.’’
Ellis made it 2-0 when she scored from 25 yards out at the 12:31 mark. Then, with 2:01 left before halftime, Hillman scored from inside the 6-yard mark after a pass deflected off a defender to her.
“That was a momentum goal,’’ Bina said. “It allowed us to do some things differently in the second half. We wanted to keep scoring, but we didn’t have to. You go at it from more of a defensive standpoint, to slow things down some and limit (the Lakers’) scoring opportunities.’’
Detroit Lakes had some scoring opportunities. The Lakers hit a shot off the crossbar in the first half on a breakaway. In the second half, Wave goaltender Kadynn Melquist had a pair of saves on free kicks, one of them a leaping stop.
“The defense in front of me made it easy for me,’’ said Melquist, who finished with six saves. “They always do.’’
