Boys' soccer: Blake's pressure pays off with victory

Blake Austin Dressen missed a goal by inches wide right with 24 minutes left in the first half of Monday's Class 1A boys' soccer state semifinal against Mankato West, then hit the crossbar with another shot 10 minutes later.

It was fitting, then, that when the second-seeded Bears finally did get onto the Metrodome scoreboard that Dressen had a hand -- or foot -- in the scoring.

His corner kick with 7 minutes, 37 seconds left in the game ricochetted into the net off the head of Kip Dooley. When Eric Barry scored less than three minutes later, Blake had a 2-0 victory over sixth seed Mankato West.

Blake earned a berth in the championship game against Duluth Marshall at 10 a.m. Thursday.

"That was fun," Dressen said. "Kip and I have had a good connection all year. He had a nice finish there. It was great."

Coach Charlie Seel said it was Dooley's fourth game-winning header off a corner kick from Dressen this season.

"He has a tremendous vertical [jump]," Seel said of Dooley. "That puts a lot of power into his head. I was really pleased with how he came to the ball, with a lot of authority."

The goal was a big lift to a team that had nothing on the board despite applying constant pressure.

An unofficial count had the Bears (20-0) with five golden scoring opportunities in the first half. Aside from Dressen's near-misses, Blake players had their shots bounce off the post, sneak by the upper corner and dance on the goal line amid a flurry of activity.

"This is exactly the way Mankato West played Fridley to get into the semifinals," Seel said. "They are a very good defensive team, a team that is patient. We knew we had to keep trying to come on and put pressure on them."

Blake took 17 shots, eight on goal, compared to three for the Scarlets (13-3-3).

Seel was animated, pumping his fist during his postgame speech, making reference to that stat.

"We maintained possession of the ball," he said later. "That made our offense."

Duluth Marshall 3, St. Cloud Cathedral 0: The fifth-seeded Hilltoppers (21-2) advanced to face Blake for the championship by defeating the eighth-seeded Crusaders (16-6).

Doug Frey assisted on Duluth Marshall's first two goals, scored by Geordie Diener at 5:48 and Jesse Geary at 15:01. Gunnar Sengbush added a goal late.

Brian Stensaas • 612-673-4127

Brian Stensaas • bstensaas@startribune.com