With a freshman doing his best Tim Howard impersonation, Breck held off the consistent attacks of No. 1-seeded St. Thomas Academy to emerge with a 2-0 victory in the Class 1A semifinals.

Goalkeeper Hudson Haecker was credited with just five saves. But virtually every one was of the spectacular variety and all were crucial to the Mustangs’ victory.

“Hudson is technically just a fantastic goalkeeper for a freshman. You don’t see that very often,” Breck coach George Stuempfig said. “He dealt with a number of difficult shots really, really well. We needed him today.”

Breck (14-4-4) took a 1-0 lead in the first half when Garrett Opperman banged a corner kick off his knee past the St. Thomas Academy keeper.

“I love attacking on corners,’’ Opperman said, “so I thought as long as we put it into the box, if I’m going hard and attacking, we can put one in.”

Playing with a lead and buoyed by the presence of junior all-metro forward Avi Eller, an elite scorer known for scintillating runs, Breck went into a counter-attacking mode in the second half. St. Thomas Academy (17-4-1) responded as expected, controlling play and applying pressure, but Haecker and the Mustangs' defense were up to the task.

“Hudson made some really great saves, but I though our team defending, when we were under pressure like that, was really solid, too,” Stuempfig said. “We didn’t allow second balls to drop in front of the goal and we handled things pretty cleanly.”

Breck, under pressure for most of the second half, finally got the breathing room it needed when Eller took a pass from Reed Goldstein and dribbled in on a breakaway, scoring with 2:47 left for the final margin of victory.

After the game, Haecker said being given a first-half lead was the motivation for his performance.

“After Garrett gave us that lead, I felt like I could do anything,” Haecker said.

Garrett Opperman scored a first-half goal and freshman goalkeeper Hudson Haecker made that lead hold up through a relentless St. Thomas Academy attack as Breck downed top-seeded St. Thomas Academy 2-0 in the Class 1A semifinals.

After Opperman gave the Mustangs the lead, Haecker made a series of terrific saves to keep the Cadets at bay until Avi Eller added an insurance goal in the game’s final stages.

Check back later for more on the game.