The Raiders soccer teams had an odd parallel trajectory for this year’s Section 3AAA tournament. Both teams were assigned the fourth seed and hosted a home section game on Tuesday, October 8th. Both teams won the first-round games 2-1, even though the boys had to take a little extra time to do so, and sadly, both teams fell to Eagan on Thursday October 10th. The girls lost 5-2 and the boys 2-0.

Girls

Tuesday started with the girls hosting Park of Cottage Grove for the 5:00 p.m. kickoff. It took three minutes and seventeen seconds for Park to take the lead. Lila Krummie poked one past the Raiders keeper Grace Petrich and the Wolfpack was up 1-0.
The rest of the first half had the usual back and forth play of soccer with Park seeming to have control more often than not, and at the intermission, Park clung to the 1-0 lead despite several scoring opportunities for the Raiders.
Girls Head Coach Paul Armstrong gave his team a simple reminder at the half.
“I told them to realize where we were, in a section 3AAA playoff game. No one wants to go home at this point of the year, and they definitely didn't. We maybe came out a little light, and it was just about us being who we are,” he said.
That reminder kept the already solid defense stout in the second half, and it ignited the offense’s aggressiveness. The Raiders kept the ball in the Park end more and that led to more scoring chances. Finally, 17:35 into the second half, Jersey Appert struck burying a pass through a defender’s legs from Keagan McVicker to tie the game.
Park looked shell shocked and offensively, they appeared to panic a little. 10 minutes, 30 seconds later, the Raider pressure earned another goal for Appert. She was dribbling down the right side of the pitch when she took a shot that she sniped past Park’s McKenna German for the go-ahead goal at 68:05 expired in regulation.
Full-on panic took hold of the Park offense and that allowed a number of turnovers near midfield. That gave Hastings a plethora of opportunities to eat up the remaining 11 plus minutes of the clock and defensively, Hastings stepped up big to take away a number of shots from the Wolfpack.
The game ended with a 2-1 Raider win. Appert had the two Hastings goals on a total of 11 shots. Petrich saved 14 of the 15 shots she faced, and the Raiders were on their way to Eagan to take on the number one seeded Wildcats.
“I keep saying it over and over, but we just talk about grit, and we talk about playing for each other. And it was definitely there tonight,” Armstrong said after the challenging win.
During the game, there were girls playing different positions with different pairings, Armstrong spoke on that.
“We try to take advantage of some matchups, but then a lot of it was kids just stepping up wherever we needed them to in a crazy game like that. You know, kids get tired which is 100% okay, and its literally next man up, that's how it worked today, and it was awesome,” he said.
But the Raiders didn’t just showcase their soccer talent, their character was on display as well. Opposing co-head coach Stacy Paleen said, “I thought they, both teams, played really well, really classy tonight. We've lost some games in the past where it's not even fun to play because the other team is so nasty. But Hastings is a really good program, really classy team.”
The game at Eagan did not go as well. Eagan took the lead 14:34 in the first half. Eagan made a great pass that forced Petrich to play the breakaway shot and she forced the shot to be just off enough it rebounded off the right goal post. The rebound returned almost perfectly to another Wildcat and before Petrich could reset, the goal was scored.
The first half concluded with the Raiders trailing 1-0 against the top team in the section. Defensively, Hastings was keeping Eagan off balance for most of the first half. Unfortunately for Hastings, Eagan was able to do the same for the entire first half.
Hastings held Eagan in check until the 53rd minute of regulation. A beautiful pass 20-yard pass set up an easy goal for Eagan and they led 2-0. With 17:33 remaining, Eagan looked to be pouring things on as they went up 3-0.
For the Raiders, McVicker was not going to go quietly into the night. Olyvia Erickson launched a shot at the Wildcat’s goal and the keeper was not able to handle the high kick. The ball rebounded directly to McVicker who put it away with 16:16 remaining in the game.
Hastings quickly took possession of the ball away from Eagan and marched back down the field. Ellie Magnus quickly connected with Siena Sanchez who then launched the ball to McVicker who then juked the defender for another score and with 15:49 left in the game it was 3-2.
That was all the offense Hastings could muster and eventually the Raiders fell 5-2 ending their season.

Boys

The Raider boys had the second game of the night Tuesday, their opponent, Eastview Lightning. The game had a lot of back and forth with Eastview controlling the ball more than Hastings would have liked, but time of possession is not always a determining factor in soccer and 29:17 into the game Parker Geib gave the Raiders the 1-0 lead.
Hastings took that lead into the intermission and once play resumed it only took Eastview 2:25 into the second half to tie the game. The rest of the second half was a nailbiter on both sides. Both teams had several scoring opportunities and both teams were shut down forcing overtime.
The final goal of the game was scored at the 83-minute mark by Hastings’ Johan Rova-Hegener from Jed Carlson. After scoring, the boys sprinted to the sideline to celebrate with their student section. Both teams finished with 11 shots on goal.
The trip to Eagan on Thursday had the boys with the early game and Hastings did a good job keeping the Wildcats offense off balance. Eagan scored the first goal of the game at 13:10 off a corner kick that involved a mistake from Sam Sanchez. The kick came right to Sanchez in front of the left side of the goal. He misplayed the clearing kick, and the ball bounced cleanly right to an awaiting Eagan player who easily scored to give Eagan the lead.
The game remained 1-0 Eagan until just under 12 minutes left in regulation when the Wildcats put another one past Brady Stewart to extend their lead 2-0. The Raiders were unable to mount a comeback and fell 2-0 ending their season.