“Here’s what it says: she’s clearly one of the best players in the state,” Wayzata coach Tony Peszneker said. “She didn’t have a point tonight, but she was still the one running the show.”

Wayzata and Minneapolis Washburn (0-2) aren’t used to meeting early in the season, but they’re familiar with high-stakes, competitive games. The last three section championships in Class 2A, Section 6 featured the Trojans and Millers facing off. Last year, Wayzata won 2-1, which set up a third-place finish in the state tournament.

Even against one of the better teams in Class 2A over the last few years, Gilbertson’s versatility — acting both as a target forward and a deeper-sitting attacking mid — made her noticeably dangerous Tuesday.

Early on, Gilbertson played high as a forward, occasionally working out on the wing and sitting on the receiving end of some long passes to the corner or up through the middle. Most of the second half, she was playing back more as an attacking midfielder, controlling the center of the field and passing with the kind of precision that would make a quarterback envious.

“Personally, I will play either,” Gilbertson said. “I think it’s fun as a forward to run onto those long balls, or get in behind, turn people. I feel like the second half we had a little more success putting goals in; so me dropping back into that attacking mid role, I really enjoyed that, and just trying to get balls in behind and connect up to the forwards.”

Gilbertson’s coach highlighted her abilities further.

“She has the ability to slow games down, she has the ability to speed things up,” Peszneker. “She’s excellent on the ball, she’s a great leader; she’s just a complete package.”

The Northwestern commit, who had nine goals and 12 assists in 2017, didn’t see any of her passes lead directly to goals, but she was consistently dangerous. She found chemistry on the left side with Abigail Brantner, and almost had a highlight-reel assist with a backheel flick to send Brantner in on Millers goalkeeper Clare Daggett, who made the stop. Gilbertson also had a nice run to win a punted ball at midfield, then carry it up to the Miller box and attract defenders before playing a pass in to Samantha Dietrick that was narrowly called offside.

Gilbertson proved she can finish and thrive as a target forward. She’ll be asked to do more creating for the Trojans (2-0) this year, and will likely drop and play in the midfield on a regular basis. Wayzata’s got enough attacking options that Gilbertson’s vision and ability with the ball at her feet might best serve the team if she’s a creator rather than a finisher.

“For us, we’ve talked with her, we’ll decide where we’re going to put her based on what our team is going to need and what the people around her can do,” Peszneker said.

The fact Wayzata can choose how to utilize Gilbertson on a game-to-game basis says a lot about the depth of the Trojans as a team. If Wayzata can take advantage of that, as it did against a quality opponent Tuesday, then more decisive results could be in the Trojans’ future.

“This year, coming into it, we’ve never really had a game this competitive this early in the season,” Gilbertson said. “So we knew we needed to step it up and bring it, and I think we did that. We’re obviously really happy with the result.”