Aberdeen Central advances in girls state soccer tournament with 6-1 win against Brookings

A fast start got Aberdeen Central on the right foot, but it didn’t go without a challenge from Brookings in Tuesday’s 6-1 victory in the first round of the playoffs. 

At 45 seconds into the game, Central forward Jayda Hammer received a feed from Morgan Fiedler and Taryn Hettich and trickled her shot past Brookings goalkeeper Brooklyn McGuire.  

But the lopsided matchup between the top-ranked Golden Eagles and the 16th-ranked Bobcats looked evenly-matched after the 10th minute when forward Elise Lefers fell down after sending the ball into the bottom left corner of the goal for Brookings. 

Central played back-and-forth into both zones, but they eventually became more persistent at the net. Midfielder Deshani Peters saw several good looks, including a penalty kick opportunity in the 20th minute when forward Lauren Joosten was taken down by Brookings defender Ella Kjelden. Peters’ shot went high, but both Joosten and her were able to make up for it later in the game. 

“When you score that early sometimes it’s just easy to relax a little bit and we were a little too complacent not moving the ball quick enough,” head coach Merle Aske said. “But the girls did a good job of getting back into it. We got a few goals and did what we needed to do.” 

Balanced attack 

All six goals scored by Central were from six different players.  

Joosten seized the lead in the 25th minute when her shot from the outside corner of the net corked inside. Once Joosten broke through, the rest followed from the offense. Morgan Fiedler ran alongside Kjelden before turning on the jets and beating out McGuire in the 29th minute. Peters dropped back to pass to an open Taylor Lyke for the final goal of the first half as the clock wound down. 

Peters earned a goal of her own in the 56th minute when she roofed her shot over McGuire. Peters added on two assists in the game. 

Abby Witte was 20 yards away when McGuire fell over to try and save her shot from the left corner.   

Putting the opponent to work 

After making several saves in the first half, Central made sure to leave pressure off goalkeeper Paige Burilovich in the second half. Brookings were allowed 14 shots in the game. 

“We did not give them the opportunities to keep going at us,” Aske said. 

Burilovich closed out with six saves, including stopping a scramble in the second half.  

McGuire, on the other hand, made 20 saves on 26 shots on goal. Central accumulated 42 shots.  

Up next 

Central will face No. 9 Watertown on Saturday at Swisher Field for the quarterfinals. The Arrows defeated No. 8 Harrisburg 2-0 on Tuesday.