Pine Island/Zumbrota-Mazeppa scored in bunches to put away fifth-seeded St. Charles 5-0 in the quarterfinal round of the Class 1A boys soccer state tournament Wednesday at Irondale High School.
A couple of scoring spurts gave the Wildcats a four-goal lead by halftime and a running start into the semifinals next week at U.S. Bank Stadium.
"We were good in possession and passing," Wildcats head coach Rafal Kolnik said. "We're always talking to them about one-touch passing. Let the ball do the work. We look for the open space and pass the ball through it. Good things happen. The other thing we talk about is pressure. Put on the pressure right away. We put pressure on right away and good things happened. We lost the ball, we took it [back] and scored."
Ben Murray and Kirt Rude scored 1 minute, 35 seconds apart to give the Wildcats a 2-0 lead. Murray got behind the Saints defense and beat goalkeeper Marcus Rinard 3:57 into the game. Shortly after, Murray and Seth Konik passed the ball around in the corner before the latter got a pass across the goal line to Rude for a tap-in backdoor goal.
The early goals fired up the Wildcats.
"[That] builds our confidence that we can score goals," Murray said. "It's exciting."
The Wildcats (19-1-2) extended their lead to 4-0 with a pair of goals 3:38 apart just past the midway point of the opening half. Christopher Tree was announced as the goal scorer for both goals, but the second may have been deflected by Konik. Tree added another goal off a free kick with 14:50 left in the game.
The Saints (13-3-3) had few possessions on the attack, especially when they were within two goals. The Wildcats forced them to attempt stretch passes or take shots from far out that were easily stopped by goalkeeper Lucas Sems.
Class 2A
St. Cloud Tech 1, Cloquet/Esko/Carlton 1 (St. Cloud Tech wins shootout 4-2): Junior Will Pearson raised his arms in victory while standing calmly after his decisive shootout goal gave the Tigers (9-7-3) a victory over the fourth-ranked Lumberjacks (16-3-0) in the penalty kicks extra session. St. Cloud Tech senior forward Caleb Campina used his speed to tie it 1-1 in the 76th minute of regulation. Senior Joseph Bailey scored on a penalty kick in the 24th minute for the Lumberjacks.
Class 1A
St. Cloud Cathedral 2, Duluth Marshall 0: Jack Stang broke a scoreless deadlock with a header in the 47th minute and added an insurance goal 20 minutes later, leading the No. 2 Crusaders (20-0-0) past the Hilltoppers (13-4-2). St. Cloud Cathedral shut out Duluth Marshall 5-0 in both teams' season opener.
