ST. CLOUD, Minn. -- East Grand Forks Senior High's perfect season is over. So is its run at a state title.
La Crescent shut out Senior High 2-0 here Thursday to end the Green Wave's chances of winning the Minnesota Class A state girls soccer championship. The loss in the state quarterfinal match ended Senior High's season at 22-1.
Jena Kadlec gave La Crescent a 1-0 lead at 3 minutes, 12 seconds of the first half, a goal coming on an assist from Skylar Minegar. It was the first goal Senior High allowed since Oct. 1.
La Crescent, which advances to the state semifinal round in the Metrodome, took advantage of a favorable bounce to score its first goal.
"It was tough," Senior High coach Jessica Krog said. "We kicked the ball to our center midfielder and with the conditions, the ball took a bad bounce and (Kadlec) made a nice play.
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"It's unfortunate that they got a bounce early on like that because I think it really set the tone for the rest of the game."
Autumn Hayes scored an insurance goal for La Crescent at 68:36 on a rebound from a saved penalty kick.
"After the first goal went in I thought we panicked a little bit," Krog said. "We got away from our game. We just couldn't settle into our system after that."
Led by Francie Piche -- the third-leading scorer in the state -- Senior High averaged 6.9 goals per game this season. Piche, a senior, led the team with 31 goals and 11 assists.
The offense, however, had trouble finding its rhythm against La Crescent.
"We had some moments where we were doing it," Krog said. "And their back line was good; they had a good sweeper and didn't give us much. We didn't have many goal-scoring opportunities."
Senior High goalie Chelsey Grassel made five stops. Meagen Schroeder had three saves for La Crescent, which outshot the Green Wave 7-3.
Krog said Senior High's youth began to show at the state tournament, as the team has only two seniors.
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"To lose one game this year . . . they had a good season," she said. "That's nothing to hang their heads about.
"But we're young, so next year they're going to be hungry again."
