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DeLaSalle and Holy Angels play out a tightly-contested draw

By Luke Hanlon, SportsEngine, 09/28/17, 10:30AM CDT

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The Islanders and Stars held each other in check for a 0-0 draw.



Freshman midfielder Mia Van der Heide fends off a pair of DeLaSalle defenders. The game ended in a 0-0 draw. Photo by Carter Jones, SportsEngine


Academy of Holy Angels goalkeeper Greta Forseth reaches to save a corner kick against DeLaSalle. The game ended in a 0-0 draw. Photo by Carter Jones, SportsEngine

Sometimes when a game finishes 0-0, one team will consider themselves lucky to get away with a point. That could explain how Holy Angels feels after escaping DeLaSalle High School, but the Stars’ head coach Dave Marshak set the record straight.

“There’s nothing lucky about our goalkeeper,” he said of Great Forseth, who was the main reason for the Stars’ clean sheet tonight.

It was an overall team effort to preserve the clean sheet for the Stars, but Forseth made multiple outstanding saves to frustrate the Islanders. Forseth was consistently good all game, but she made two notable saves to help avoid the loss. The first came in the second half, when Maddie Duca hit a curling shot from just outside the box that Forseth caught while diving to her right. The latter of the two saves came in the second half of overtime when the ball found Ansley Atkinson in the middle of the box and her strike was saved by the fingertips of Forseth as she extended to her left.

Forseth's save came against Atkinson, who Marshak considers “one of the top three players in the whole state.”

“Anytime you can keep her off the scoreboard, or keep her from putting someone else on the scoreboard, that’s a win,” he said of Atkinson, who has 12 goals and 11 assists this season.

DeLaSalle head coach Tim McDonald called Atkinson a star in the middle of the field and he saw that the Stars were man-marking her with two defenders throughout the game. This meant that other players had to step up and fill the gaps that were left in the field, and he praised Isabelle Fleming, Maddie Duca and Maggie Haller for their performances in the game.

“I thought we were a little better than them in the first half. I thought they were much better than us in the second half,” he said.

There wasn’t much of a difference between the teams in the first half, but the Islanders took over in the second half. Part of this was because of the adjustments that McDonald made at halftime.

“We put a little bit more pressure on them in the defensive third and I think that caused them to make some mistakes in the back that created opportunities for us,” he said.

McDonald did emphasize that the Islanders have never beaten the Stars in this Tri-Metro rivalry, and he was disappointed not to get all three points. He did not hold back when he thought about playing the Stars again.

“We wanted this one really bad, and if we get the chance again, we won’t lose.”


Sophomore midfielder Lucy Lyngen sends the ball upfield past Senior defender Hanna Sobhani. Photo by Carter Jones, SportsEngine

First Report

In a game with so much significance in the Tri-Metro Conference standings, there was a high-level of tension on the field at DeLaSalle High School as DeLaSalle hosted the Academy of Holy Angels, ranked No. 9 in the Class 1A coaches' poll.

Both teams are vying for a spot at the top of the Tri-Metro and the standings, and that won’t change after playing to a 0-0 draw.

The first half was evenly-matched, with neither team holding on to the ball for long enough to create dangerous chances.

After adjustments were made at halftime, the field tilted in the favor of the No. 13-1A Islanders, as they dominated possession and had the ball on the Stars’ defensive end for most of the half. The Islanders (8-4-1, 4-1-1) had a few good chances, including a great curling shot from Maddie Duca, but Greta Forseth made multiple saves to preserve the clean sheet.  

The first half of overtime went by without any drama, but the second gave DeLaSalle two great chances. The Islanders' best effort came from a hard strike from Ansley Atkinson that forced Forseth to make an incredible diving save to her left to save a point for the Stars (8-3-4, 4-1-2).  


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