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South St. Paul 3, CL 1

The Wildcats battled seventh-ranked South St. Paul to a 1-1 tie at the half. But then the rains came, literally and figuratively. South St. Paul scored the only two goals of the second half to beat the Wildcats 3-1 Monday, September 17 at Chisago Lakes.

Manuel Cruceru scored the Wildcats' only goal on a sensational 40 yard free kick. The left-footed Cruceru curled the ball over the wall and past the South St. Paul goalkeeper into the right corner of the net. The Wildcats had good chances to score on a couple of breakaways later in the half. But they missed a wide-open net on the first one and kicked it into the goalie's midsection on the second one.

"We had a pretty good first half," said Wildcat head coach Mark Leigh. "But, South St. Paul is a pretty good team and showed why they're ranked seventh in the state. They should win their section this year. In the second half, we showed our lack of experience and they took advantage of the opportunities we gave them. We have to learn to finish our scoring opportunities and to prevent easy goals by our opponents."

"Despite some frustrations recently," continued Leigh, "we still have a good chance to do well in sections this year. We're playing a tough schedule this season. By the end of the regular season, we will have played eight of the top 14 teams in the state. And we play seven games in a 13-day period to end the regular season. If we can play well against the tough teams and come up with some strong wins against the other teams, we'll be set up to have a very good run at the section tournament."

The Wildcats' busy schedule includes five games in an eight-day stretch: (home) Benilde-St. Margaret's Tuesday, September 25; (home) Irondale, tonight, Thursday, September 27 at 5 p.m.; (home) Mounds Park Academy Saturday, September 29 at 1 p.m.; (away) Monticello, Monday, October 1 at 4:30 p.m.; and (away) Columbia Heights Tuesday, October 2 at 7 p.m.

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