NEW PRAGUE — Mankato East boys soccer coach Jerrad Aspelund has been to a lot of section final games in his 19 seasons leading the program.
However, most of those haven’t gone the Cougars’ way, including a heartbreaking loss on penalty kicks last season.
“I have lots of red medals at home that I don’t like,” Aspelund joked. “I only want the blue ones.”
The Cougars picked up a blue medal Tuesday night, beating Marshall 1-0 in overtime in the Section 2AA final. It will be East’s first trip to state since 2012.
Carson Stenzel scored the game-winning goal for the Cougars just three minutes into sudden-death overtime, with the assist going to Salman Ali. Jhoel Dillon passed the ball to Ali, who then flicked it ahead to spring Stenzel.
After calmly possessing the ball, Stenzel dribbled into the box and ripped a high shot home over the goalkeeper’s head. Ali, Dillon and Stenzel have carried the East offense this fall with a combined 36 goals.
“I kind of just looked up, saw Salman had the ball and he passed it to me,” Stenzel said. “I looked up, there was a guy, I cut back and then just took a shot.”
Added Ali: “I was there if it deflected off the keeper. … We play so connected.”
There was plenty of action at both ends in the first half. The Cougars applied tremendous pressure down the stretch, including a pair of corner kicks that were served dangerously into the box with about 10 minutes remaining. Both hit several bodies, but the Cougars didn’t get a bounce.
Ali had a shot from in close go just high in the closing minutes of the half.
Aspelund felt the Cougars were better defensively in the second half, which was fairly quiet until both teams got chances in the final 10 minutes. The Tigers had a shot go high from about seven yards out, and Dillon had a shot hit the side of the goal.
Despite having some frustrating moments, the Cougars always seemed in control. There are 11 returning players on the team who lost to Worthington in the final last season, so nerves were never an issue.
“We were built for this since last year,” Aspelund said. “That was our (goal) when we lost in the shootout last year, was to be back here and win it.”
Added Stenzel: “All we were looking forward to (was) to come back and win.”
The Cougars (13-3-2) will play in the Class AA tournament next week.