MDN file photo MaLiah Burke dribbles the ball during Minot's 5-1 win over Bismarck May 11.

The accolades came in droves for the Minot High Majettes soccer team in the days following the first state championship in the history of the program.

Three Majettes were honored with Class A All-State selections, one of whom was also named the North Dakota Class A Soccer Player of the Year.

“It means a lot to be recognized with this award, because I’ve worked hard at soccer for over 10 years,” rising senior forward MaLiah Burke said. “It feels good that all the hard work I’ve put into soccer has been noticed.”

Burke produced an outstanding offensive junior campaign to help lead the Majettes through their undefeated season. She netted a team-leading 21 goals during the regular season, beginning with a hat trick to lead Minot over Mandan by a 3-0 final score in the season-opener April 9.

During the Majettes’ 19-0 rout of Bismarck St. Mary’s April 17, Burke scored a game-high six times, marking her third consecutive multi-goal game and giving her 11 scores through her first three games of the season.

Following the conclusion of the regular season, she contributed one goal and two assists in Minot’s 6-0 state championship game victory over Fargo Davies, giving her five total points in postseason play after earning a goal and an assist in Minot’s first three playoff matches.

“I think we had a really good team this year,” Burke said. “We had really good team chemistry and we’ve been playing together for a long time, so I think that the team working together made it possible for us to score a lot of goals this season. Our team composure was really good this year.”

She stressed how great an honor it was to be an integral piece of Minot High’s first girls soccer state championship, pointing to the team’s focus from the first day of practice and desire to reach the goal it set from the beginning of the season.

The lost 2020 season, wiped out due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was a disappointment for the Majettes in more ways than one, but perhaps the biggest reason was how confident the team felt in its hopes to contend for the top spot in the state. It simply served as more fuel in the team’s competitive fire entering 2021.

“We thought we were going to have a really good team last year, and this year we thought we were going to be even better,” Burke added. “Everyone on the team had the same goal in mind starting from the beginning of the season, and that was to win the state championship, so us as a team were determined to achieve this goal. We worked hard and we wanted the state title more than anything after not being able to compete last year.”

The forward also contributed to her team’s stifling defensive performance throughout the season. To accompany the 106 goals the Majettes potted throughout the campaign, the club allowed only four. Minot pitched 12 total shutouts, including seven straight to conclude the season.

“We have to work together on defense. It’s not only the back four, but also the team as a whole coming back together, helping each other out so we can counter from the back,” Burke said. “Our base really starts from the defense, and then we work our way up from there to have a successful offense.”

When Burke takes the Duane Carlson Stadium field next, she will be one of 10 seniors looking to repeat their 2021 feat and end their high school careers on top. Forward Lainey Sandberg and defensemen Zoe Weishaar and Katie Weaver will have passed the torch to Burke and her fellow classmates, but the reigning Player of the Year is not concerned with replacing their production.

“Going into senior season, we’re losing three seniors, so that’s going to be hard, but I feel like we have good enough girls stepping up that we’ll be able to fill our positions,” she continued. “If everyone comes into this season motivated again to win, I think we’ll be really successful.”