EAU CLAIRE — Aquinas High School girls soccer coach Doug Harpenau made an early determination during the opening minutes of his team’s WIAA Division 4 sectional championship game against Washburn on Saturday.
Washburn midfielder Gemma Sandor was going to be a problem for the Blugolds unless an adjustment was made.
Sandor was an experienced player from the Castle Guards team that qualified for the Division 4 state tournament a year ago and key piece to them having another successful spring.
“We had to mark her and with more than one person,” Harpenau said. “We used Emma Biondo, Liv Dickinson and Alaina Elias.
“We rotated those three to get fresh legs in there every 10 minutes.”
While that helped drastically on the defensive side, senior Alexa Myre and sophomore Hannah Miller took care of the offense as the Blugolds beat Washburn 2-0 at Eau Claire North to qualify for the state tournament for the first time in nine years.
“Someone told me it’s been since 2017 (since Aquinas qualified), but I told them they must be wrong,” Harpenau said. “I guess that’s correct.
“I’m glad we’re back, and it’s going to be a great memory for the kids.”
Myre struck around the 32nd minute, and Miller added the insurance goal in the 74th.
That and a focused defensive effort and shutout from senior Madelynn Grossbach put Aquinas (15-3-1) in the Division 4 state semifinals at Uihlein Soccer Park next week.
The Division 4 field is the Blugolds, Ozaukee/Random Lake (17-3-1), The Prairie School (18-1-1) and Xavier (21-1). Those teams will be seeded on Sunday and break into Friday semifinals that will be played at 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. at the Milwaukee site.
“Our defense really shut them down,” Harpenau said of the Castle Guards. “I think they only had five shots with three of them on target. We put up around 15 against a pretty good goalie.”
Lehney Paulson was Washburn’s goalkeeper during last year’s state run as a freshman, and she made things tough on Aquinas, which advanced to this game by beating Lodi on penalty kicks Thursday.
The Blugolds’ aggressive nature with the ball, however, gave them two good scoring chances that they converted.
Myre buried her shot in the left side of the net, and Miller gave the team the second goal it wanted with less than 10 minutes left in regulation.
Harpenau attributed at least some of the victory with experience on turf fields.
Aquinas plays its home games at Fields for Kids, but rain this week pushed the semifinal against Lodi to Logan’s Swanson Field.
Harpenau said Saturday’s game was his team’s seventh on turf, and it was unbeaten in that atmosphere. That was a change made from the team having trouble on turf fields last season.
“My girls are good runners with a lot of endurance and have done a lot of conditioning,” he said. “In the first part of the game, Washburn was really pushing us, but as the game went along, we were using our speed and endurance for more opportunities.”
The Blugolds are making their eighth state appearance and third since winning the Division 4 title in 2015. Aquinas again qualified for the championship game the next season but came home with second place.
