Orono Girls Class 1A Minnesota State Soccer Champions

2009 November 5

by Kyle Nelson

Orono 5 – 0 The Blake School

Sophie Babo lit up the Metrodome in the Class A Girls’ Championship game. The Orono forward, who is only in seventh grade, showed that she would be a player to watch for the next few years by scoring three of the Spartan’s 5 goals. When asked what it was like to play as a seventh grader, Babo replied, “I don’t think of myself as a 7th grader. When I’m out on the field I think of myself like everyone else.”

7th grader Sophie Babo shoots over Maddy Crawford to score her second goal of a 3 goal performance. Photo by Jeremy Olson

In the 13th min of play an Orono shot was accidentally blocked by another Orono player. Luckily, the ball ended up at the feet of forward Amy Larson on the left side of the penalty box. Larson whipped in a driven cross that found the head of midfielder Kerrie Dingmann, who put the ball into the goal.

A few minutes later, in the 17th min of play, Orono forward Nikki Smith sent a ball to Sophie Babo. Babo began her hat-trick by rifling a half-volley from just outside the 18 yard box into the upper 90 of the far post.

The second goal for Babo came in the 29th minute. Nikki Smith made a run with the ball down the right flank and sent in a cross. Babo collected the ball near the six yard box with a defender on her back and placed the ball past Blake’s keeper Maddy Crawford. This was the second time the two players connected on the field. “Nikki helped me get those goals. She’s an amazing player,” said Babo after the game.

In a half dominated by Orono, Blake had a few chances as well. Midfielders Nicole Kozlak and Lydia Sutton sent shots at Orono’s keeper Grete Miller. Miller was also tested when Blake sent a long ball towards one of their attacking players. Miller came and grabbed the bouncing ball with a Blake attacker in close proximity. Blake central defender Korleki Akiti also played a solid first half handling most of Orono’s attacking runs. However, later in the first half Akiti went down with an injury to her left knee after colliding with a teammate during a clearance. Akiti was unable to return to the game.

Picking up where the team left off, Orono’s Amy Larson started off the second half with a dangerous shot/cross that sailed across the goal mouth but did meet the net or a teammate. Minutes later Caitlyn Quilty took control of the ball near the corner flag and sent a ball to Nikki Smith at the top right corner of the box. Smith fired a shot and beat the keeper near post.

The final goal of the game came in the 47th minute when Dingmann sent the ball in from the left side of the 18 yard box. The cross was knocked down by a Blake defender only to fall to the feet of Babo who was in a crowd, but was able to punch it into the back of the net completing her hat-trick and Orono’s championship season. “I definitely couldn’t do this without my teammates. I really hope we can do it again next year” added Babo.

A full photo gallery of the game can be found at Digital Gopher.net