Minot 19-U soccer girls finally bests Fargo
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By LARRY McFALL
Correspondent
Eight years was well worth the wait for Minot's 19-U head girls soccer coach Dale Christensen.
The Minot Blizzard girls soccer team earned its first win ever over the Fargo Red River squad to take the championship of the Tri-Cities soccer tournament in Fargo last month. And the Blizzard not only beat them once, they beat them twice.
"I have been coaching this core nucleus of girls for eight years now, and none of these girls had ever been on a team that had ever beat the Fargo group," said Christensen.
The 19-U team was formed by picking selected players from the Minot Soccer Association's league teams. The group is 7-4 in tournament play this year.
"We have one 18 year old on our roster, so we have to play up to the 19-U level instead of playing against our age group - so our 15 and 18-U teams just joined up with the older girls to play at the level that we are at," Christensen added. "The tournament that we played in Rapid City (S.D.) after the Fargo tourney had us pitted against players that competed for various college teams last year, so it was quite the experience."
The Blizzard went 1-2 in their pool play in that Rapid City tournament.
The team has been playing together since November when they competed in an indoor season, playing in tournaments in four different cities. Then they went on hiatus during the high school soccer season, then went back at it this summer.
Last month the teams hard work was rewarded. After knocking off Fergus Falls, Minn. in their first-round match 8-1, they rolled over Bemidji, Minn. 4-0 to set up their collision with Fargo.
That is when the Blizzard made history, defeating Fargo 2-1 to make it into the semifinal round.
"It was so huge to finally beat them (Fargo)," said Blizzard goalkeeper MaKayla Sandvold. "It felt awesome to finally beat them - I have been with this group of girls since I was 9 years old, and we had never beaten them."
"It used to be that if we only lost by one or two goals, we considered it an accomplishment, but not anymore." said Sandvold.
The Blizzard did not stop there, as they then proceeded to knock off Alexandria, Minn. 5-1 to reach the championship game, which fittingly would be yet another battle against the Red River from Fargo.
"I was so proud of the girls at that stage of the tournament and for the first time we felt confident going into a game against Fargo," said Christensen. "The girls played so well in the championship game - we were down 1-0 at halftime, but we tied it up in the second half and survived two five minute over time periods as well."
Fargo led off the shoot out, giving the Blizzard the last kick in the shoot-out format. Both teams sent eight players to the mark, which still did not decide anything as the shootout was tied at 5-5 at that point.
But on Fargo's ninth try Sandvold deflected the scoring attempt wide and set up Minot's next kicker, Krystal Funke, with a chance to win it.
Funke buried the kick, lifting the Blizzard to the 2-1 win and sending them to podium for the first place trophy.
"When the game went into the shoot out, I just tried to concentrate on what I had to do and tried not to look at them until they were ready to take their shot," Sandvold said. "Then when the ball was ready for play I tried to just read their eyes and get an idea of where they were going to shoot."
"I didn't mind going to a shoot out, because we were 6-1 in shoot outs going into that one, and I had all the confidence in the world in our girls," Christensen said. "It was a very exciting game - there was a lot of tension there!"
Minot's victory, according to Christensen, was a huge stepping stone for the program, but he realizes it took a lot of work to get to that stage.
"This would never happen without the help of many coaches over the years that I have worked with - this is not a one-man show by any means," said Christensen. "John Blada was with us for a very long time and Craig Golding and Robby Nodad help me out as advanced trainer coaches right now this season."
Christensen went on to say that without the parents the program would not be able to continue at all.
"This team would not exist without the parents. We travel a lot and the parents are so valuable in getting the girls to the tournaments and supporting them at the same time," he said.
Christensen's team consists of Sandvold and Funke, along with Alex Bachman-Williams, Marcy Buchholz, Ashley Bueligen, Bailey Bachman-Williams, Brianna Feehan, Ali Fowler, Taylor Bachman-Williams, Theandra Blada, Nicole Love, Alyssa Reule, Brittany Zuck, Emily Christensen, Caitlin Bussard and Shannon Walsh.
The team has four regular season games left, along with the league playoffs and championships at the end of July. But Christensen is really looking forward to the Blaine Schwan's Cup on July 17-19, to be played at the soccer complex in Blaine, Minn.
"The tourney in Blaine is the largest soccer tournament in the United States. There is excellent competition there and I'm excited to see what the girls can do there," he said.
The team was also looking forward to the State Cup in Fargo July 24-26, but due to scheduling conflicts with most of the team's players, they will not be making the trip to the state this year.
"I am pretty disappointed that we are not going to play in the state, but it just wasn't going to work out for most of us - but the tourney in Blaine will be a great experience," said Sandvold.
