N.D. STATE GIRLS SOCCER: Fargo Shanley tops Bismarck St. Mary's

It was lonely in goal for Jenna Zaeske.

With Fargo Shanley’s offense dominating ball possession time, Zaeske didn’t get much action Thursday at Cushman Field. The Shanley goalie had one save in her 74 minutes of playing time as the Deacons scored a 4-1 quarterfinal win against Bismarck St. Mary’s in the quarterfinals of the North Dakota girls high school soccer tournament.

“I like action. I like saves,’’ said Zaeske, a North Dakota State University recruit who didn’t allow a goal before being taken out of the game with six minutes left and Shanley leading 4-0.

“There wasn’t a lot of action. Our defense did a good job of keeping the ball away from me. Hats off to them.’’

Shanley’s ball-control offense also had a hand in Zaeske’s inactivity. The Deacons had only 10 shots on goal. But they spent the majority of the game in the St. Mary’s defensive zone.

“Shanley is a good team. They’re No. 1 from the east for a reason,’’ St. Mary’s coach Joe Cleary said. “We came in looking to defend and hoping for a chance to counter them. And we did that for the first half.’’

Shanley led only 1-0 at intermission, with Anna Triller scoring on a header off a corner kick with 8:22 left in the first half.

The score remained that way until Jackie Day scored twice in a 3:19 span in the second half. The first came on a rush in the box from the left side, in which she made a spin move to get open and found the opposite corner of the net. Then she buried a shot from the right side at the 51:31 mark.

Triller made it 4-0 with her second goal just under two minutes later.

“It was too close of a game,’’ Triller said. “It was getting frustrating. We had some chances in the first half. It’s all about finishing. We worked on that in the second half.’’

Shanley coach Kevin Roos gave the St. Mary’s defense credit.

“Their goalie did a great job, and their defense was organized,’’ Roos said. “It was tough to break them down. It was a little frustrating. But we knew (the offense) would come eventually.’’

St. Mary’s broke the shutout with 2:52 left on a goal by Alexa Hutzenbiler.

Fargo North 8,

Bismarck High 1

Scoring opportunities presented themselves early for the Fargo North girls soccer team Thursday and the Spartans cashed in.

North cruised to a blowout win over Bismarck during the quarterfinals of the North Dakota state soccer tournament at Cushman Field.

The Spartans (12-3-2) scored its first three goals of the match in a span of 2 minutes, 44 seconds.

“We wanted to come out strong,” senior midfielder Alyssa Gross said of the flurry of goals. “We were really fired up and we gained a lot of momentum from it.”

Gross got the Spartans on the board 6:36 into the match. Gross received a pass in open space from junior forward Carly Bosch and then booted a shot to the right corner past Bismarck goalkeeper Sara Bachmeier.

Fifty two seconds later, senior forward Bobbi Simmer made it 2-0. Senior midfielder Kate Astrup scored nine minutes, 20 seconds into the match to give North a 3-0 lead.

The Spartans play defending state champions Bismarck Century at 4 p.m. today in the semifinals. Century has a 24-match unbeaten streak and defeated North 1-0 during the regular season.

“We have to stay positive,” Astrup said of the matchup with the Patriots. “We need to be confident and I believe this team can do it.”

Fargo Davies 2, Minot 0

Fargo Davies received a wakeup call approaching halftime.

Minot had a goal wiped off the board after being offsides on a scoring attempt in the final minutes of the first half.

Instead of stumbling into the break, the Eagles punched it in gear and scored two goals to seize momentum.

The dramatic swing of events propelled Davies to a 2-0 win over the Majettes.

“It pumped us up, but it was not something that you really want pumping you up,” Davies junior forward Reiley Klose said of the play. “Emery (Gess) made a great save and on their second attempt they got called for offsides. After that, we had to get going.”

Minutes later, Klose won a ball at midfield and speed down the sideline for a breakaway opportunity. Klose unloaded a shot that got past Minot goalkeeper Kaitlin Stenberg 33 minutes, nine seconds into the match.

“I saw (Stenberg) setting up on the back post so I figured she was thinking I was going to go for the cross, but I put it up front and it just got by her fingers,” said Klose, who has 16 goals this season.

“We had a slow start,” Minot head coach Matt Pfau said. “We controlled the game for a good 15 to 20 minutes in the first half, but then they win a ball and go up 1-0 after we had dominated a big stretch of the match.”