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The dream season has ended for the Viking boys' soccer team just one game short of the state tournament.

Hermantown scored the game's only goal with 11:23 remaining to beat the Vikings 1-0 in the Section 7A championship game on Thursday, October 22 at Public Schools Stadium in Duluth.

Over 100 North Branch fans followed the team north on a cold evening to cheer on the Vikings (15-5-1) in the first section championship game in team history. Neither the Vikings nor Hermantown had ever been to the state tournament in soccer.

The Viking defense had a solid game against a tough Hermantown attack. And when the defense faltered a little near the end of the first half, senior goalkeeper Austin Holmes made three outstanding saves to keep the game tied at 0-0. The best save came on a shot from 15 yards out just inside the right side of the box. The Hermantown player ripped a shot that looked like it would get under the crossbar, but Holmes leaped high in the air, smacked it with both hands and caught it on his way down as Hermantown players rushed the net. Holmes also had several good saves in the second half and dove on several loose balls to snuff out Hawk scoring chances.

One of the Vikings' two great scoring opportunities came in the first half. A through ball was played to Brian Grand, who broke free up the middle and came in all alone on the Hermantown goalkeeper. He launched a shot that unfortunately went almost directly toward the goalkeeper, who made a relatively easy save to keep the Vikings off the scoreboard. "Brian said the ball skipped on him a little bit as he went to shoot," said Viking head coach Graeme Jury, "and he didn't catch all of the ball. In games that big, when something like that happens, its effect is magnified. My forwards are used to having a lot more chances on goal, but in a game like this against a very good team you may only get a few chances."

In the second half, some creative play from Grand and Nic Miller nearly resulted in a North Branch goal. The ball was passed to Grand in a good scoring situation deep in the Hawk zone. But instead of playing the ball, Grand allowed it to run between his legs right to a wide open Miller. Miller got pushed to his right, however, and wasn't able to get everything on his shot. The Hermantown keeper was able to come up with the save to again frustrate the Viking faithful. "That was a great move by Brian to fake the ball like that," said Jury. "Brian and Nick were able to read what the other one was going to do. It's just too bad we couldn't convert it."

Hermantown's only goal was scored as the Vikings failed to clear a ball from the right side of their 18 yard box. Instead of shooting, a Hawk player sent a perfect pass to his teammate standing just five yards out from the goal line on the left side. That teammate lasered a header into the back of the wide open net.

The Vikings turned up the pressure during the last 11 minutes of the game, hustling even harder to get to every loose ball, every header and every through ball, but the Hawks proved equal to the task and hung on for the win.

"Someone was going to score one goal and that was going to be it," said Jury.

Jury had some nice things to say about the Vikings' opponent. "Hermantown was a very well-coached team," he said. "Their coach was voted the section coach of the year, and I think we made the right decision. Also, Hermantown was a classy team. They were nice kids, respectful and very good winners. They didn't rub our face in it after the game. I hope they go all the way and a team from Section 7A wins the state championship. It was their year."

Jury talked about two seniors who were keys to the Vikings success. "We ended up with the number one scorer in the state and the number one keeper in the state," he said. "Brian Grand finished his career at North Branch as the all-time leader in goals in the state of Minnesota, with 96, and tied the single season scoring record with 35 goals this year. Austin Holmes led the state in saves this season. It doesn't really do you a lot of good if you score a lot of goals and let them in at the other end, and Austin and the defense helped us get a lot of wins this year."

Jury continued, "That was a very emotional game. I made sure I got every senior on the field, because that was their final game. When we played Duluth Marshall in the semifinals and beat them 3-0, that's when we thought 'we can do this'. We dominated that game and it set the tempo going into the Hermantown game. Our guys played their hearts out and played very well, but Hermantown was just a little bit better."

The team was understandably down on the bus ride home from Duluth, but Jury tried to help them put it in perspective the next day. He said, "I went to the high school to talk with a bunch of the players and asked them if they realized what they had achieved this year. They put a trophy with their picture on it in the trophy cabinet and everyone will see their picture on that trophy as they walk down the hallway. We finished ranked fifteenth out of 138 Class A teams in the state this year, which is a monumental achievement for North Branch soccer. A lot of the credit for our success goes to Brian Grand's father, Peter Grand, who turned the program around. He took a team that had won two games in 2007 and coached them to a 10-6-2 record last season. I just inherited the program from him and took it a little step further.

A big thing that really contributed to our success this year was that we trained very hard. The kids had to run three miles in a certain amount of time at practice every night and we had hard, physical drills. We made it through the season without any major injuries on our varsity. Also, every senior on the team was a good mentor this season. There's not one bad kid on this whole team. They're good, all around students and I'd adopt every one of them if I could."

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