Ryan Ladika/MDN Manasseh Boakye (9) scores the second goal of Minot’s 7-0 rout of Mandan Saturday afternoon and his sixth of the year.

Magi goaltender JJ Dufner has been instrumental throughout the first month of the Minot High boys’ soccer team’s dominant 2021 fall season, so it was only fair for his team to give him a bit of a breather Saturday afternoon.

The Magicians rolled through the visiting Mandan Braves by a 7-0 final score in their 14th game of the season Saturday, remaining unbeaten with their 13th win of the campaign and clinching the Western Dakota Association regular-season title at Duane Carlson Stadium.

Entering the matinee matchup, the Magi had already locked up, at worst, a second-place finish in the WDA and a berth in the state tournament by virtue of their last victory, a 3-1 road win against Williston Sept. 16.

Head coach Creighton Bachmeier was not satisfied, though, with the winning effort that marked the sixth consecutive contest decided by two or fewer goals for Minot. Prior to the opening kick, he called for his team to produce a much faster start from the onset.

“We have to do a better job in the first couple of minutes mentally getting into a match,” Bachmeier said. “We haven’t started out on the front foot like we did in the first half of the season. It’s not that we haven’t played quality soccer, but it’s taking us too long to settle into the match. I’d like to continue to see if we can be the aggressors in those first five to 10 minutes.”

The Magi certainly delivered on their coach’s request. Minot put the pressure on its opposition from the beginning, cashing in six times in the first half including a pair of goals in the first 10 minutes of the match.

“It feels better on my heart rate, I’ll tell you that much,” Bachmeier said with a laugh after the comfortable win.

Brayden Oswalt kicked off the scoring for the Magicians, finding the back of the net on his free kick opportunity just under eight minutes into the affairs.

Ezra Hagerott facilitated Minot’s second goal, taking control of the ball at midfield with a well-executed header before passing it along to Manasseh Boakye on the far side. Boakye brought the ball all the way in and finished a shot at point-blank range to double his team’s lead with 30:53 left in the opening half.

Assisted by Kade Anderson, Ian Hagerott scored Minot’s third goal off an ill-placed kick by Mandan netminder Will Mickelson, and Justice Amsbury potted the Magi’s fourth coming down the far side with help from Ezra Hagerott.

Another Minot free kick, this time by Ian Hagerott, was the catalyst for the fifth score. Instead of shooting for the Braves’ net, he sent the ball just below for Oswalt who beat Mickelson on the near side for his second score of the contest.

Boakye did most of the work for Minot’s sixth goal, juking two Braves’ defenders on the far side of the field before giving way for Syrus Mayne who finished the job just before halftime, and Dylan Helde topped off the scoring with his second goal of the season in the 53rd minute.

“I don’t know if you could draw it up any better,” Bachmeier added. “The pregame talk and what we did on Tuesday and Thursday of this week, we knew it wasn’t up to our standards. We needed to make sure we did the fine-tuned things of soccer, and I think we absolutely did in the first five minutes.”

The team saw six different players score its seven goals on 19 total shots, 14 of which were on target, and Dufner needed only one save throughout the afternoon to record his WDA-leading fifth shutout of the season.

Now with only two games remaining, both home matchups against Bismarck and Dickinson later this week, the team has no plans to slow down in its hunt for the second state championship in program history.

“We want to continue to push and try and win the conference,” Bachmeier continued. “We want to win the regular season. At this point in the year when we’ve clinched the state tournament berth, really what’s ahead of us is to continue to try and win championships. Whether it’s the conference championship or the conference tournament championship, and hopefully the ultimate prize at the end is the state tournament. There’s so much that we’re still fighting for. We want to create good habits going into these last three weeks.”