CLOQUET – Both soccer games at Members Cooperative Credit Union Stadium on Friday ended with more drama in the closing moments than the rest of the day combined.
The Cloquet-Esko-Carlton boys were trailing Two Rivers 2-1 as time ran out, but with a few seconds left, a foul was called against Two Rivers just outside the penalty box, giving the Lumberjacks one last chance.
Rizal Agaton-Howes took the free kick and looked to have tied the game before Warriors goalkeeper Jonah Hess saved the ball at the last second. Time ran out before CEC could put the corner kick into play, dropping them to 0-1 on the season.
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In the second half of the doubleheader, the Cloquet-Carlton girls were trailing 1-0 against Two Rivers when Lauren Hughes fired a shot at the Warrior goal. Warriors goalie Edy Halverson was able to save the shot but was unable to hold onto the rebound.
The ball seemed to bounce off several feet and many wondered, “How did it not go in?” But before a Lumberjack player could get another good touch on the ball, Halverson picked it up and cleared it.
Both the Lumberjacks boys and girls will look to defend their Section 7AA titles again – the boys for the fourth consecutive year and the girls for the sixth consecutive year.
Both could certainly bring another section title back to Cloquet, but the games against Two Rivers showed that both still have some work to do to get where they want to be.
The boys are ranked sixth in Class AA, but have an almost completely new defense and freshman Logan Baker started in goal. In addition to replacing Walker Marquardt, who was selected to the 2023 All-Area team, the Lumberjacks have also released two-time All-Area Player of the Year Elijah Aultman.
“It’s going to be a little bit of a learning curve for these guys,” CEC coach John Sundquist said. “We just have to keep getting them into games like this, especially the second-years. It’s not ideal to put second-years on the field in a game like this, but we’re not as strong as we’ve been in years past. With only one third-year on the team, the other grades have to step up, and that’s what they did today.”
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The absence of Aultman doesn’t help, but Hudson Snesrud scored 15 goals last season and Noah Hansen and Collin Young were both scoring threats. Young scored the Lumberjacks’ lone goal on Friday.
“We’re still bringing back firepower, so there’s no reason we can’t be as good as we were last year,” Sundquist said. “Obviously losing Elijah is tough, but on the other hand, we scored more goals than other teams did last year.”
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Senior Ben Schramm said the offense stalled at times Friday because the Lumberjacks were “not disciplined,” but in some of their previous attempts to reach the sectional championship, they have always started with losses.
“We really can’t complain about this loss,” he said. “We just have to recover and compete again tomorrow. We usually never win the first game, but I don’t think we’ve ever been this close. For our new moves and our inexperience, I think we did really well.”
Cloquet hosts Columbia Heights on Saturday afternoon.
Speed is key for Lumberjacks girls
Jamey Malcomb/Duluth Media Group
Cloquet-Carlton coach Dustin Randall knows it’s the team’s speed that will earn them a sixth straight title, but Two Rivers was able to fend off the attack and frustrate the Lumberjacks on Friday.
“They did a good job of keeping us a little bit off balance,” he said. “They adapted very well to what we wanted to do. They dropped players and didn’t let us play at the back and we didn’t adapt well. When we started to get things going again, they undid it again with just one small mistake – a bad pass – and forced us to start again.”
The Lumberjacks are keen to get a player behind the opposing defense, but they also need to be able to adapt, according to Randall.
“We want to use our speed to get deep, but we don’t want to rely on it either,” Randall said. “We want to use the space they give us, keep the ball and push forward as a group.”
Jamey Malcomb/Duluth Media Group
Veteran defender Ellise Boyd said that while the loss hurt, she will not let it deter her from pursuing another state tournament appearance.
“We have a lot of fire and we need to build on that,” she said. “We’re going to make our connection a million times stronger than it was today. Randall always says we have to focus on the little things – they had good passes today and we can spot little details like that and that can help us win.”
Jamey Malcomb/Duluth Media Group
Randall said the Lumberjacks “don’t like to lose,” but the challenge from a team like Two Rivers is something they’re looking for, too.
“We won’t think about it for long, but we will learn from it,” he said. “We need teams that push us like that if we want to get where we want to go. Our goals are high. If we are not challenged throughout the year, we will struggle.”
Cloquet-Carlton will face Esko on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Members Cooperative Credit Stadium in Cloquet.
Jamey Malcomb/Duluth Media Group
Jamey Malcomb/Duluth Media Group
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Jamey Malcomb has been a high school sports reporter for the Duluth News Tribune since October 2021. For the previous six years, he covered news and sports for the Lake County News-Chronicle in Two Harbors and the Cloquet Pine Journal. He graduated from George Washington University in 1999 with a bachelor’s degree in history and literature and also holds a master’s degree in secondary education English from George Mason University.
