The South Dakota high school soccer championships took place from Huron on Saturday as four teams were crowned state champions. For most of the day, the wind played a factor for all of the competitors.
A Girls Championship (Final)
West Central 2
Tea Area 0
Both teams played with aggression through the first half of play, but neither could put up many shots on goal. At halftime, the match was scoreless.
West Central broke the 0-0 tie in the 18th minute of the second half when Rylee Haldeman found the back of the net on one of her shots. The Trojans added an insurance goal from Keighlor Nolz with under ten minutes to play, and they’d hold on to win 2-0.
“It’s always a good feeling. I’ve got to thank God for all the blessings that he’s given us and for everything that he’s done for our team, and all the great girls I’ve got on my team,” explained West Central head coach Greg Anderson. “They’ve worked really hard.”
Leading up to the championship game this week, five subs from West Central’s squad sustained injuries, meaning other players were going to have to step up for roster depth.
“It’s just our program. We’ve got a lot of talent that I’m grateful for, and it’s nice to be able to have somebody step in when something happens,” Anderson said. “We’ve got to give credit to those girls, they’ve worked really hard. My two senior leaders (Shelby Sherard and Jada Vanoverbeke) really helped this season too. It just helps to have some leaders who have been through it before.”
This is the fourth state championship for West Central in the past five years. West Central and Tea Area have met a total of four times in the ‘A’ girls state title game with the Trojans winning three of them. The Lady Titans came into Saturday’s game as the defending state champs.
A Boys Championship (Final - Shootout)
Sioux Falls Christian 2
Tea Area 1
For the third straight year, Sioux Falls Christian and Tea Area met to decide the state champion in ‘A’ boys soccer. Coming into the game, the Chargers had only allowed seven goals all year, and they’re only loss was to O’Gorman (AA) in the final game of the regular season. Offensively, Sioux Falls Christian scored 70 goals during the regular season as well.
Just eight minutes into the game, the Chargers scored first on a goal from senior forward AJ Bauer. Tea Area would answer seven-and-a-half minutes later on a header from senior defender Tyler Duffy. It was deadlocked at 1-1 at halftime.
The second half saw a few close calls from both teams, but neither could edge out a lead in regulation play. In fact, both teams also failed to take the lead during the two overtime periods, which led to a shootout.
Sioux Falls Christian didn’t miss during the shootout. A miss by Tea Area in the second frame put the match on the line at the top of the fifth set with the Titans badly needing a score to stay alive. Tea Area’s attempt sailed over the net, sealing the 2-1 victory for Sioux Falls Christian.
“My heart is still racing. You hate to go to [penalty kicks] in that situation, but proud of the guys for putting [shots] in. And I know Tea worked on it too. It’s a high-pressure situation. I’m just thankful that we made ours,” said Sioux Falls Christian head coach Kendall Velgersdyk. “I’m so happy for our seniors. We have twelve seniors on the team. We lost in double OT in the same game to Tea last year, so that was a heartbreaking loss and I wanted this so bad for them, and they’re the ones who carried us through.”
Earlier in the year, Sioux Falls Christian defeated Tea Area in a 7-0 blowout. The Titans did a much better job on Saturday of slowing down the Chargers high powered offense, which at times, seemed to rattle Sioux Falls Christian’s game plan.
“I talked to them all year about being the mentally tougher team. When things don’t go your way, you got to fight through that. I thought we did that today. It was a physically tough game, but I thought we stayed mentally tough, we stayed mentally strong, and we stuck to what we knew.”
This is the third state boys’ soccer championship for Sioux Falls Christian since the sport was sanctioned in 2012. It was the Chargers first state title since 2015.
Class AA Girls (Final)
Brandon Valley 2
Sioux Falls Roosevelt 0
This is the first time that either Sioux Falls Roosevelt or Brandon Valley have reached the state soccer championship match since the sport was sanctioned. The Lynx found some rhythm in the first half with two goals – senior’s Kennedy Nuebel and Julia Kreutner both found the back of the net within the first 20-minutes of this match.
That score would hold until halftime. The Rough Riders had a few close calls for goals in the second half, but every attempt missed. Brandon Valley also didn’t add any points in the second half, which gave the Lynx a 2-0 state title win.
For Brandon Valley, the goal was to compete for a championship this season.
“It’s just awesome to see the girls accomplish together that they’ve set out to do for a few years now, especially this group of seniors. Their freshman year they lost in the semifinals and just to get back to the point where they could get back to a point where they could compete for a championship, that was the goal this year,” explained Lynx head coach Jacob Shoup. “And to see them do it is pretty sweet, so super proud of them.”
Brandon Valley came into the championship game as the No. 4 seed in the ‘AA’ class, while Sioux Falls Roosevelt was listed at No. 7. Top seeded Aberdeen Central got upset in the quarterfinal round of the postseason, while the Rough Riders took down No. 2 seeded Harrsiburg in the semifinals as well.
“Nobody really predicted that it would be us and Roosevelt in the championship when it all started. For both teams to be here, Roosevelt is a fantastic team, we were very privileged to play them tonight and they played a great game as well,” Shoup stated. “We felt at the beginning of the season that we had a team who could compete. It’s been a while since we’ve lost a game, it’s been a while since we’ve gotten scored on, so the girls played their best at the right time.”
Since mid-September, Brandon Valley has been arguably the best team in the state on paper. They haven’t allowed a score since September 15th, which includes both the regular season and post-season play.
This is the first state championship for the Brandon Valley girls soccer program.
AA Boys Championship (Final)
O’Gorman 2
Rapid City Stevens 1
The ‘AA’ boys’ championship had that David vs Goliath feel as Stevens came into the match undefeated on the year – but O’Gorman was riding the momentum train. The Raiders scored in the thirteenth minute of the match, courtesy of Zach Williams, who gave Stevens a 1-0 lead.
Wesley Zimprich of O’Gorman tied the match at 1-1 in the final minute of the first half, which gave the Knights a little momentum at the midway point.
O’Gorman snagged the lead 2-1 roughly halfway through the second half on a goal from Patryk Stys, and they held on to take down the No. 1 ranked team in the state, Rapid City Stevens.
“This has kind of been the story of our year. We get down a little bit and then we come back, and we always respond,” explained O’Gorman head coach Ryan Beier. “Even in our playoffs, the other team might score, we always come back and get an answer for it. Our guys, they love each other, and I love them, and this is the culmination of a great finishing touch to our season.”
The Knights faced adversity for most of the postseason, having to beat both the No. 3 and No. 2 ranked teams in the state just to get to the state championship game.
“We’ve had four playoff games. We went on the road to Spearfish, we went on the road to Watertown, they were one goal games, so our guys were tested before this,” Beier said. “This is where they could put a show on tonight.”
This is the first state soccer championship for the O’Gorman Knights boys’ soccer team.
