RICHFIELD, Minn. -- They all gathered around Molly Smemo, swallowing her up in a sea of black jerseys and patting her on the back.
Despite the junior goalie's best efforts Thursday night, Moorhead fell to Duluth East 2-0 in the Class AA girls soccer state
quarterfinals.
"Molly Smemo played the game of her life tonight," Spuds Coach Scott Middleton said. "She kept us in it."
Moorhead (11-8) was unable to register a shot on goal the entire evening, as the faster and stronger Greyhounds (18-3-1) dominated play for all 80 minutes.
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They constantly peppered Smemo, who made 11 saves, and rarely let the Spuds out of their own end of the field.
"I have to give all the credit to our defenders," Smemo said. "They stayed right with them and never let them get off a clean shot. And sometimes I was in the right place at the right time. But we're proud of our season. We played almost even tonight with the No. 3 team in the state."
Duluth East, making its third consecutive trip to the state tournament, is the top-ranked team left in the tournament.
It ended the regular season ranked No. 3 in the state coaches poll, and No. 1 Cretin Derham Hall and No. 2 Minnetonka have already been eliminated. The Greyhounds face Wayzata on Tuesday in the semifinals.
Moorhead wasn't expected to be in the state tournament after starting the
season 1-4.
But after dropping an early regular-season game to Duluth East by an 8-0 score, the Spuds were determined to make amends on Thursday night.
"It was definitely motivation," Smemo said. "We remembered that game and we wanted to show them how wrong they were the first time."
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Duluth East Coach Shawn Roed said his team knew it would see a different Moorhead team in the state quarterfinals.
"We knew it would be a battle," he said. "We told our team to just stay confident, to keep on going after them, that even if it went to overtime we'd find a way to score."
Duluth East's Anne Litecky made sure there would be no extra period, redirecting a long kick by teammate Ali Zobel past a diving Smemo with 4:23 left in the game to give the Greyhounds a 1-0 lead. Less than two minutes later, Duluth East's Trista Cooke pounced on a loose ball and fired it past Smemo to cement the victory.
The Spuds' only real offensive chance came in the 33rd minute of the first half, when Lacy Wiger fired a free kick from just outside the penalty area over the crossbar. Greyhounds goalie Anne Siders saw hardly any action, only touching the ball a few times as her team kept the field tilted toward Smemo's side for the entire evening.
Smemo said the Spuds have nothing to hang their heads about, and was even smiling a few minutes after she and her teammates broke away from their last huddle of 2002.
"We're proud of everything we did this year," she said. "Everyone came into tonight believing we could beat this team, and we came close. It's been a great season."
SECOND HALF: 1, DE, Litecky (Zobel), 35:00. 2, DE, Cooke, 37:00.
SAVES: M, Smemo 11. DE, Siders 0.
