State girls soccer: Mahtomedi downs Mankato East to get back in Class 2A title game

For the better part of three decades, the Mahtomedi Zephyrs have been a girls soccer power.

The school won 10 Class A championships between 1997 and 2021, including four straight from 2017-21. COVID-19 cancelled the 2020 event.

Moving up to Class 2A, the Zephyrs were runner up in 2022. The 2024 group has a chance to exceed that mark later this week.

Olivia Thiele had a natural hat trick in the second half and Mahtomedi crushed Mankato East 7-0 Tuesday afternoon in a Class 2A girls soccer semifinal.

The No. 2 Zephyrs (18-2-1) will face No. 1 Holy Angels (20-1-0) in Friday’s 2:45 p.m. final back at U.S. Bank Stadium.

And, they hope, rid a bad taste they’ve collectively had for about 54 weeks. Mahtomedi lost to Totino-Grace in the 2023 section championship.

“After how our season ended last year we all just want it super badly,” said Sophia Peer, who had two goals.

“We dominated that game. We just knew that us being seniors we did not want to end it like that again this year,” Thiele said. “There’s 11 of us.”

In the tournament for the third straight season, Mankato East (16-3-2) had won 11 in a row.

“We were concerned with their athletes up top and the number of goals they scored, but our defense really nullified them,” said Zephyrs’ coach Dave Wald, whose team has allowed just seven goals this season.

The only teams to beat Mahtomedi this season are Class 3A schools that had success this season. East Ridge is playing for third place Wednesday and White Bear Lake lost to the Raptors in a section final.

Sixteen seconds into the second half, Thiele took advantage of a Mankato East miscue in the box to make it 3-0. She scored on a header in front about 3 1/2 minutes later.

Appropriately, the senior completed her hat trick with another header midway through the second half. This one came off a feed from Allie Rippentrop.

“I haven’t scored more than one goal all season, so it was really exciting for me. All the balls that were given to me were really amazing from Kayla (Poirer) and Allie so it was easy to put my head on them and put them in the back of the net,” Thiele said.

Rippentrop and Peer set the tone with first-half goals. Peer and Emily Muetzel scored in the final 11 minutes.

A long ball from Faith Peper — the kick originated at the Mahtomedi 15 — was chased down by Rippentrop at about the Mankato East 25. Her low shot from the top of the box found the lower left corner barely 7 minutes in.

A header by Cecilia Emery off a corner kick by Rippentrop went off the crossbar but the carom went right to Peer in front for a putback at the 31-minute mark.

Holy Angels 4, Orono 1

Ellen Neuharth scored twice to pace the top-seeded Stars in the other semifinal.

Addy Judson, an Ole Miss commit, and Emma Danberry also scored for Holy Angels, seeking its second title in three years. The Stars lost to Benilde-St. Margaret’s in last year’s title game.

Mya Moore had the Orono goal.