Rosemount's boys' soccer team was counting on its five returning starters from the Class 3A state tournament runner-up group of a year ago. Irish coach Todd Farrington didn't take injuries into account.
"We were hit with a lot of significant injuries at the beginning of the season," Farrington said. "We were short five to seven starters the first seven games of the season. Our top player, Reid Wolf, is still out. We're hoping to get him back next week. Two other returning starters were out the first three weeks."
The Irish got off to a 0-3-2 start, the losses all by one goal.
Now they are 10-5-2 and have a spot in the Class 3A state tournament clinched. Seeding meetings are scheduled for Saturday, and games may begin as soon as Tuesday.
"During those early games, our younger players were able to gain valuable experience, and they set the tone for the team moving forward," Farrington said. "As our top players began to return, they injected more confidence in our younger players and really pushed them to new heights."
Rosemount's only two setbacks the rest of the way were to 3-0 to Eastview and 2-0 to Eagan. Those two teams were seeded ahead of them in the Class 3A, Section 3 tournament.
"We were playing with some real confidence when we ran into Eastview during the regular season," Farrington said. "They came to our stadium and took it to us from the opening whistle. They are an overwhelming team offensively, and we didn't have a response in the first half. We switched up our formation in the second half and were more competitive, but they were just too much that night.
"We struggled the remainder of the regular season to gain confidence and dropped another very important game to Eagan. Had we won that game, we would have been [South Suburban] conference champions for the first time."
