St. Paul Academy upsets Providence Academy in Class 1A girls soccer semifinals

St. Paul Academy found itself down by two goals by the eighth minute of play against top-seeded Providence Academy. But the No. 4 seed Spartans stuck to their game plan.

Junior Sawyer Bollinger Danielson produced a second-half hat trick to help propel her team to a 4-3 upset of the Lions in a Class 1A girls soccer state semifinal Tuesday at U.S. Bank Stadium.

Danielson broke a 3-3 tie with 2:02 remaining in regulation. Her second goal, on a free kick, tied the score at 2-2 early in the second half.

"I've been working a lot this year on shooting off of free kicks," said Danielson, committed to the Gophers for college. "I'm happy that all the work this season has paid off in a good moment."

The Spartans (11-6-4) had already lost twice to the Lions (17-2-1) this season, 2-1 and 6-0.

Lions sophomore Maddyn Greenway recorded an assist and tied the game 3-3 on a sharp-angle shot only a couple of minutes after the Spartans took the lead.

"You expect when you get a goal to get some momentum," Lions coach Paul Cronin said. "And sometimes for teams, it fires up the team that gets scored on, too."

"I feel like that's the story of our season," said senior goalkeeper Annika Lillegard. "We get better as we go, and I think that was shown throughout this game.

"We ended strong."

St. Charles senior goalkeeper Makadyn Gust had looked forward to this moment her whole life.

So when she hobbled off the field in the second half of the Class 1A semifinals Tuesday following a collision with an opponent, she tried to come back into the net a few minutes later.

"I think everyone understands the pain of an injury, watching one of your teammates go down. It's always tough," Gust said, through tears. "I never wanted to be the person to come out of a game."

Freshman Cora Davidson assisted on the first goal, but her most notable effort was filling in for Gust, making a save and keeping Southwest Christian (18-1-1) off the board. Davidson had stepped into the varsity net only one other time.

"She went out there and nailed it," Saints coach Taige Puetz said. "She did great. That's a big moment for a young kid."

Southwest Christian junior Maya Johnson tied the score 1-1 before halftime.

"It was huge for us," Southwest Christian coach Mark Anderson said. "It was certainly a momentum change. We felt actually quite good at halftime."