2010 Minnesota State High School Soccer Boys AA Champions – Apple Valley

Apple Valley 3-0  Minneapolis Southwest

The Apple Valley Eagles and the Minneapolis Southwest Lakers both may have been feeling the pressure as they came into the Boys AA final at Mall of America Field. Each was carrying a  23-0-0 record into the game. But when the match finally got under way, it may have been the Eagles who were feeling more pressure. They were working towards their 47th consecutive win which dated back to August of 2009. They were also shooting for their second consecutive state title and their 9th boys AA championship.

Southwest came out strong, not only controlling the midfield but had the better attack as well.  Their defense was also shutting down the normally lethal Eagles offense and with the midfield control they were not allowing dead ball setups that Apple Valley can feast on.

Ryan McLean put a shot on net early for Southwest from 18 yards out that forced a save from Eagles goalkeeper Tim Van Beck.

In the 26th minute the Lakers threatened again when Max Winter came in from the left side and forced Van Beck to make a diving save to his right.

It was Southwest again in the 29th minute that forced a save from Van Beck. Carlos Alcantara received a ball, turned and shot from 10 yards out.

At one point Southwest had a 9-3 shot advantage. But as the second half waned the Eagles seemed to find new life with better possession.

Apple Valley received a corner kick which senior forward Tom Obarski took. He hit his kick low and to the near post to a waiting Hudson Fasching. The tall forward flicked the ball at the goal. The ball popped off his foot and up into Lakers keeper Maliq Hunsberger who deflected the ball out of bounds with his body.

Hudson Fasching cuts the ball

With only three minutes left in the half, the Eagles’ Derek Smith shot  and forced Hunsberger to make a diving save to his left.

The half ended with the momentum edging towards Apple Valley, but tactical changes may also have helped the Eagles.

Eagles assistant coach Chris Lee said he’s seen teams come out strong against them in the past but fade as the game progressed.

“We’ve been a second half team all year,” said Lee. “A lot of teams that play us come out with a tremendous amount of energy to score on us with our undefeated streak. Once they expend that energy and if our defense can hold them off with Van Beck back there, our guys are really good at making adjustments to what we see on the field in the first half. Then we really go to town.”

And adjustments they did make. Apple Valley head coach Chuck Scanlon said changes were made to do a better job of linking the defenders to the attack.

“We were definitely a little nervous the first half with our streak and being defending state champions,” said Scanlon. “We saw that we had some big gaps between our mids and our strikers so we moved (Dane) Grundstrom up as an offensive midfielder and Simon (Goettl) actually likes to play defense. He stayed back so that shut down all their counter attacks. Whatever side we were on, we’d have the outside mid get as wide as possible and moved the forwards as deep as possible. It stretched our options out. We didn’t have all those options open to us in the first half.

It didn’t take long into the second half for the Apple Valley attack to kick into high gear. In the 43rd minute, Apple Valley won a free kick 25 yards out from goal and even with the far right side of the penalty box. Simon Goettl played a perfectly weighted ball into a waiting Fasching who used his size to reach around his defender and lace the ball into the right side of goal and past a sprawling Hunsberger putting the Eagles on the board.

Shortly after his goal, Fasching came down the left side of the field, cut his man back, faked the shot and threaded the ball square through two defenders to an onrushing Tom Obarski. Obarski’s shot was blocked at the last minute by the Southwest defense.

At the 51st minute mark, Fasching received a pass from Grundstom and slotted past Hunsberger for his second of the evening. With the better possession in the second half going to the Eagles, the two goals seemed an impossible hill to climb for the Lakers, who now looked the more tired of the two sides.

Southwest's keeper Maliq Hunsberger makes the save while Apple Valley's Tom Obarski waits on the steps.

Dane Grundstrom added the icing on the cake in the 70th minute.  He dribbled square across the penalty box, wormed his way through two defenders, pushed the ball past Hunsberger and calmly passed the ball into the net.

The Eagles kept the pressure on the Lakers for the last ten minutes and the 3-0 score would be the final.

“There’s pros and cons of giving up only 2 goals the whole season,” said Minneapolis Southwest head coach Jamie Plaisance. “When you give one up in the state final it can be a shock to the system.  Before this game I told our guys that Apple Valley was going to score a goal and that we would have to score two. I think high school players can hear that but when it goes into the back of the net it’s a tough pill to swallow. Emotionally I think it was tough to bounce back from. I have a great team and it was a wonderful season. But when you get to this level it’s never easy to be satisfied with second place.”

“I felt like I had to step up today,” said Fasching, who scored two goals. “Tom (Obarski) has been carrying the team a lot lately. I felt like it was my time to step up and do what I could. We had a lot of momentum going into the second half. We were getting outplayed a little bit earlier. We needed to get the team going and goals are the best way to do that I guess. They’ve only had two goals scored against them all year, so once we got that first goal it loosened their defense up.”

“Fasching really stepped his game up,” said Scanlon. “We had a few passes to his feet that he lost. I talked to him on the sidelines and said, you’ve got to check back for the ball and use your body. Shield the man and then play the ball back. That’s what he did and he’s so dangerous one-on-one. Not only did he score the two goals he also made some great passes to other players. ”

“You have to give Southwest a lot of respect,” said Lee. “That is probably the best team we’ve seen in the last 3 or 4 years. They’re really young. They’re going to be very good next year.”