Benilde-St. Margaret's, Mankato West reach 1A girls' soccer final

Defending Class 1A champion Benilde-St. Margaret's has a thing for scoring late in the half to take the lead, it showed twice in its 3-2 victory over Hill-Murray on Monday in the Class 1A girls' soccer semifinals at U.S. Bank Stadium.

Trailing by a goal in the first half, the Red Knights got two goals from Vivian Shinall, the second with just over a minute left.

In the second half, it was 2-2 with a little more than two minutes left when Benilde-St. Margaret's junior Madison Stoks sent a corner kick cross to Claire Van der Heide, who gathered it in and rifled a shot past Hill-Murray goalie Elise Potvin.

The goal lifted the top-seeded Red Knights to a 3-2 victory and into the title game Thursday.

"It was a great ball from [Stoks], and we all knew that it was probably the last chance we were going to get," said Van der Heide, a member of last year's championship team. "We knew we had good people in the box and a person kicking it, and we just took care of it."

Hill-Murray (14-8), which had defeated Benilde-St. Margaret's 2-0 on Aug. 30, took a 1-0 lead when Katherine Schindler headed in a corner kick at 25:41 of the first half. After Shinall gave the Red Knights the lead, Pioneers midfielder Claire Cater tied it 2-2 early in the second half.

Despite graduating their four starting defenders and two leading scorers from last year, the Red Knights are now in position to win back-to-back championships.

Mankato West 3, Dover-Eyota 0: Mankato West had multiple chances to put Dover-Eyota away in the other semifinal, but off-target shots and saves by Eagles goalie Abbe Lacey on breakaways and two-on-ones kept Dover-Eyota around.

A decision to step up on a Scarlets rush in the 71st minute proved costly for Lacey, as Shelby Lund scored the game's second goal. A penalty kick goal by McKenna Buisman with 5:35 remaining ended any hopes of a comeback for the Eagles (17-4).

The Scarlets (19-2) scored multiple goals for the 17th time this year and broke a school record with 90 goals on the season.

Buisman, an all-state selection for the second time, scored her eighth postseason goal and fourth of the tournament.