Park girls soccer: Despite late-season lull, Wolfpack earns No. 2 seed in playoffs

Though the Park girls soccer team scuffled down the stretch, a stellar regular season effort has the Wolfpack well-poised in the postseason as it looks to make a run at its first state tournament appearance since 1992.

Despite going 1-3-2 over its final six games of the year, Park earned the No. 2 seed in the Section 3AA tournament – just behind top-seed Eastview, which is ranked fifth in the state with a 10-3-1 record. Eagan (7-7-2) is the third seed and Apple Valley (7-6-2) is the fourth seed.

Park finished the year 9-3-3 overall and 4-3-2 in the Suburban East Conference – good for fourth place. White Bear Lake (13-1-2; 7-0-2 SEC) won the SEC championship, ending Woodbury’s 10-year reign as conference champions.

Park lost its final two regular-season games last week – 2-0 to Mounds View on Tuesday and 4-3 to East Ridge on Thursday.

Maddie Castro, Anna Keys and Temi Ogunrinde all netted goals for Park in the loss to intra-district rival East Ridge. However, East Ridge built a 4-0 lead in the game, too much of Park to overcome.

The Raptors (6-8-2, 4-5 SEC) scored three goals from set plays and held a 4-0 lead at one point before the Wolfpack got a goal back before the end of the first half to make it 4-1 and made a big rally with two second-half goals to make the game interesting.

Ogunrinde, a junior, led the team in scoring for the year with 12 points on 10 goals and two assists. Castro, a sophomore, was second with 11 points on five goals and six assists.

The Wolfpack take on seventh-seed Henry Sibley on Tuesday in the section opener. A win would pit Park against either third-seeded Eagan or sixth-seeded Hastings in the semifinals on Thursday.

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