Wayzata-Edina, Holy Angels-Mahtomedi rematches set in Class 3A, 2A girls soccer title games; Southwest Christian makes first appearance in 1A final

Alex Vellieux’s first Wayzata hat trick couldn’t have come at a better time.

The sophomore midfielder scored three times — good for a third of her total goals this season — as the top-seeded Trojans beat No. 4 Eagan 5-0 in Tuesday’s first Class 3A girls soccer state semifinal.

The Trojans (18-1-1) will face Edina (14-1-5) in the state final on Friday at 10:15 a.m. Wayzata lost to Edina 2-1 in last year’s title game. The Hornets also handed Wayzata its only loss of this season, 2-1, in August.

“Getting the first [goal] is definitely the hardest,” Vellieux said. “It gives you the confidence, like, ‘Oh, I can get more,’ and just keep it coming from there.”

Wayzata didn’t let any time go to waste. Gophers commit Tenley Senden put the Trojans ahead in the second minute, carrying the ball 60 yards down the field after freshman outside back Carolyn Voss forced a turnover by Eagan (16-4-1).

Senden’s shot from outside the 18-yard box dipped over the outstretched arms of Wildcats goalkeeper Maddy Weisel, good for the 3A Ms. Soccer finalist’s 24th goal of the season. She’s helped the Trojans average five goals per game this year.

“Usually we aren’t the team who scores right off the bat,” Senden said. “Earlier today, scoring right off the bat was such a huge thing, because Alex got a couple more and we kind of sealed it.”

Tuesday’s semifinal victory wasn’t too different from the Trojans’ semifinal last year, when Wayzata scored three times in the opening 15 minutes to beat Maple Grove 5-1.

Vellieux poked in the rebound off a save on one 13th-minute corner, then headed home a second corner to put the Trojans up 3-0 before halftime. Sophomore Lauren Craig recorded her 22nd assist — the third most in the state — on Vellieux’s header.

“[Our freshman and sophomores] have been key contributors along the way,” Wayzata coach Tony Peszneker said. “For Alex and Lauren, two players that have been key features throughout the season, that just says a lot for them, on this stage, in these parts of the game, when they’re just sophomores.”

Senior forward Sophie Hawkinson assisted on Vellieux’s last goal and recorded one of her own, finishing a ball slotted in from the right flank by Vellieux in the second half.

The Wayzata backline dealt handily with an Eagan team that scored 51 goals this season and won Class 3A’s Section 3 to secure its second consecutive trip to state. Eagan applied a few moments of second-half pressure but didn’t record a shot on goal.

“We definitely talked as the back line, knowing that their forwards are super fast and aggressive,” Wayzata senior defender Ava Nayar said. “Just keeping them in front of us, not letting them spin us, and making a statement that no team can get past Wayzata.”

Seven-time state champion Wayzata last won a title in 2012 but has been to state more than any other team, including the past four years.

Wayzata did its part to schedule a rematch of last year’s Class 3A final. No. 3-seeded Edina finished the job later with a 3-1 win over No. 2 East Ridge.

It’s not the same undefeated Edina squad from a year ago, but the Hornets have booked a spot in the same big game, and “nothing’s really changed,” junior midfielder Lou Ruffien said. “We still have the same mentality and urgency to win.”

Edina sophomore midfielder Mikaela Caverly put Edina up just after halftime with her 13th goal of the year. Freshman Elizabeth Conner’s header was her first goal for Edina, finishing a corner from Ruffien with 11 minutes left in the game and seeming to clinch the game for the Hornets.

Until the last five minutes.

East Ridge leading scorer and Iowa commit Elle Wildman scored off a corner kick with four minutes left, breathing life into East Ridge’s chances. The Raptors grabbed the ball out of the net and sprinted back to midfield, eyeing an equalizer.

“We all took a breath after that happened,” Edina senior defender Eleanor Doscotch said. “[We] chose to stay composed instead of getting frantic and starting to make silly mistakes.”

Wildman’s goal had not yet been announced over the stadium PA system when 24 seconds later, Ruffien put a glancing header into the back of the net on the end of a long Hornets free kick from senior defender Anna Conner.

“We had that little connection, and she looked at me, I looked at her, and I knew she was going to hit it,” Ruffien said. “Anna hit an amazing ball. It was truly Anna who did that.”

And that would do it for Edina.

Most of the match was a steely deadlock between an East Ridge (15-2-2) backline that conceded an average of only 0.50 goals per game this year and an Edina backline that almost matched it at 0.63.

No easy shots, no easy passes.

“We had to win the first and second [balls] in our half,” Edina coach Taylor Greathouse said about her halftime message. “We’re allowing them to get the ball first, not stepping as hard as we should be.”

Edina broke the deadlock just after halftime in the 46th minute when junior forward Lily Smoley slotted a low ball across the 18-yard box from the right wing. Sophomore forward Avery Cooper had the attention of the East Ridge backline in front of goal, so Caverly came crashing into the box unmarked to bury a shot.

Edina All-State senior goalkeeper Eleni McGuire snuffed out East Ridge’s best chance to equalize an hour into the match, sliding in to save a Raptors free kick and preventing an unmarked near-post shot for Wildman.

Coming off an undefeated run to a state title, the Hornets had confessed to high expectations for themselves after they won this year’s section final over Minnetonka. With a younger roster and new coach, they had drawn games they wished were wins, but they’re clicking at the right time, and heading back to defend their state title against Wayzata.

“Both teams have grown so much from that game,” McGuire said. “It was so early in the season, and I think that score kind of doesn’t really matter right now. We’ve got to take what we have and what we’ve built on this whole time, and just win.”

A double shot of Holy Angels junior forward Ellen Neuharth secured a 4-1 victory a Class 2A semifinal, marking 20 victories overall this season for the No. 1 seed and an appearance in Friday’s title game.

Holy Angels (20-1) will face Mahtomedi (18-2-1) on Friday at 2:45 p.m., a rematch of the 2022 title game won 2-1 by Holy Angels.

Junior defender Addy Judson, who is verbally committed to Ole Miss, got Holy Angels on the board late in the first half. Her fifth goal of the season held up until teammate Emma Danberry, a sophomore forward, doubled the Stars’ lead early in the second half with her seventh goal of the season. The all-important third goal was scored by Neuharth.

Mya Moore of No. 5 seed Orono (12-5-2) cut the deficit to 3-1 with her third goal this season.

The public address announcer at U.S. Bank Stadium barely finished providing scoring information when he was interrupted by Neuharth’s second goal of the afternoon.

“It was hard to get some momentum only to see them score right away,” Moore said.

Neuharth, who made a verbal commitment to the Gophers, scored her team-leading 24th goal of the season and put Holy Angels in control on the scoreboard and in the minds of their opponent.

The Stars led 4-1 at that point.

“It’s always good to score, especially that third goal right before halftime,” Neuharth said. “And scoring that fourth goal kind of took the belief and hope right out of them.”

In the other semifinal, junior forward Allie Rippentrop and senior forward Sophia Peer put No. 2 seed Mahtomedi on the front foot with first-half goals en route to a 7-0 victory over Mankato East (16-3-2).

Ahead 2-0 at halftime, senior forward Olivia Thiele ensured the Zephyrs train kept a-rollin’ with two goals early in the second half to build a 4-0 lead.

“We wanted to score a quick goal off the start,” Thiele said. “I haven’t scored more than one goal in a game all season, so that was exciting.”

No. 3 seed Mankato East never quit, but the Cougars never put the Zephyrs’ advantage in doubt, either. Thiele made sure her team kept its distance by completing the hat trick. Peer added a second goal for a 6-0 lead.

“We’ve got 11 seniors and we’ve been growing with each other for a long time,” Thiele said. “Especially since we lost in the state finals two years ago.”

Esko’s defense held No. 1 seed Southwest Christian scoreless for as long as it could Tuesday, but in the end, Maya Johnson, the Stars’ leading scorer, did what Maya Johnson does.

In this case, it was to make sure Southwest Christian (19-0-1) advanced to its first state championship game with a 2-1 victory.

With 16 minutes left in the Class 1A girls soccer semifinal, the senior forward forced a turnover by the Esko (13-4-1) backline and beat the keeper to slot a ball into the empty net. She did almost the same with six minutes remaining, taking on the backline by herself to put the Stars up by two.

Johnson’s brace marked her 25th and 26th goals of the year for the Stars, and perhaps the most important. The Stars will face Providence Academy in Friday’s 1A final.

“It took quite a few tries to get through their back line,” Johnson said. “They made it difficult for us to score.”

Pressing high with a minute left, Esko senior defender Reese Kuklinski scored her team’s lone goal, crashing the net to finish a deflected shot by freshman attacker Paiton Plante.

“Sometimes I’m like, ‘Just go,’” said Kuklinski, a Class 1A Ms. Soccer finalist and Minot State commit. “I’ll do everything I can. Being in the back and seeing everything going up there, I kind of know what to do. I know what’s coming because I’ve been watching continuously.”

“It’s the hockey player in her,” Esko goalkeeper Hannah Roemer said.

Southwest Christian’s defense held Esko at bay in the final minute.

Southwest Christian has averaged 4.84 goals per game, with four goal scorers — Johnson, Isabella Travis, Aubrey Burkhart and Gisella Harder — in double digits, but Esko’s defense quickly stepped to loose balls and effectively disrupted the Southwest Christian buildup for most of the game.

“Our defensive line has worked so hard outside of practice,” Esko coach Sharon Lahti said. “Strength and speed training allows them to be so much more physical than they have been over the years.”

Southwest Christian coach Mark Anderson said the Stars made adjustments to connect more passes and not force every ball forward in the second half.

Both teams are recent state tournament debutants, with Esko making trips in 2022 and 2023 and Southwest Christian finishing fourth in its first state appearance last year.

“This time last year, we had our heads down,” Johnson said of last year’s state semifinal loss. “This year, we’re going to take it to them.”

Two of the best goal scorers in Minnesota soccer met in the 1A girls soccer state semifinals, with No. 2 Providence Academy beating No. 3 St. Charles 3-0 behind a hat trick from junior forward Maddyn Greenway.

The three goals put Greenway’s season total at 42. Meanwhile, the Providence Academy (13-6-0) backline was able to shut out Class 1A’s Ms. Soccer, Sam Perez, as the senior forward looked to add on to her 35 goals scored for St. Charles (17-4-1) this fall.

The Lions’ win books their first trip to the state championship match after two consecutive seasons losing in the state semifinals.

“The whole week, we went through film and practicing and realized those through balls would be there,” Greenway said about her hat trick. “They play a high [back] line. … So we practice with that.”

“We’ve played that type of defense before,” Greenway said. “It’s really hard to maintain for the full game.”

St. Charles coach Taige Puetz commended junior midfielder Lydia Warmka-Gathje’s “tooth and nail” player-marking of a speedy Greenway, but the tall task preoccupied the defensive midfielder when she would otherwise be more involved in building the attack, Perez said.

“She’s a really important piece of our defense and our offense, but when she’s strictly defense, it’s kind of hard for our entire team to adjust,” Perez said. “I had to adjust, all the way at striker.”

That helped keep the Saints from matching the speed and pressure from Greenway.

Freshman attacker Blake Hudson, eighth-grade forward Beckett Greenway, and senior midfielder and 1A Ms. Soccer finalist Tatum Janezich recorded assists for Providence.

Maddyn has played basketball with her younger sister, Beckett, but this is their first soccer season together. Beckett has 17 assists this fall.

“We kind of talk to each other with a quick attitude,” Maddyn said. “I think it took a lot of people time to realize that’s just how we normally speak to each other, and we just constantly want the best for each other.”

“It’s been fun seeing moments where she has success, just as a big sister.”

In Providence Academy’s last two seasons, the team’s state semifinal losses came in high-scoring 4-3 free-for-alls. But this year, Providence Academy coach Paul Cronin said, tough regular-season competition helped the team’s defense and its All-State defender Cecilia Carron prepare for quality attackers like Perez and long balls sent into the forward line.

And the Lions are familiar with their next high-scoring opponent, Southwest Christian. Providence beat the Stars in last year’s third-place game at state.

“For us, it’s just work rate and attitude,” Janezich said. “Keeping our positive attitude and going into it knowing that we deserve this and we’ve seen them before.”