BLAINE – Coach Julie Satre was busy attending a bloody nose with three minutes remaining in a scoreless game when the cheers erupted behind her.

Wednesday, August 04, 1999

BLAINE – Coach Julie Satre was busy attending a bloody nose with three minutes remaining in a scoreless game when the cheers erupted behind her.

She knew what happened.

&uot;All of a sudden people started cheering, and it wasn’t Albert Lea people,&uot; said Satre.

It was Rochester people. They were cheering the only goal of the game as the Albert Lea Elks U-17 girls’ soccer team fell 1-0 for the Minnesota Youth Soccer Association Classic 2 state championship at the National Sports Center in Blaine.

It was a disappointing end to a great season for the Elks team, which finished with a record of 12-2-2.

It was a tough loss, according to Satre, because Albert Lea had some excellent opportunities throughout the game and the Rochester players were less-than-gracious winners.

&uot;We had a couple great chances to score,&uot; said Satre. &uot;In any other game, we probably would have scored them, piece of cake. I don’t know if it was nerves or what; we just missed them. But the girls played an outstanding game.&uot;

The Elks team, which has played with a minimum of substitutions or no reserves at all this season, had 12 girls for the game. But one of them, standout Amy Jacobson, was coming off a knee injury and playing against doctor’s orders.

Jenny Elseth was in goal for the locals.

The first half was essentially a standoff, according to Satre, as the Albert Lea girls played very defensively.

&uot;We defended, we didn’t let them score,&uot; said the coach.

In the second half, the Elks team got much more aggressive.

&uot;We played most of the second half in their end of the field,&uot; said Satre. &uot;Rochester had maybe three or four runs down the field in the second half. It’s surprising, with as many injuries as we had and as warm as it was, that we did better in the second half than the first half.&uot;

The Elks team included Jacobson, Elseth, Megan Levisen, Kim DeYoung, Brooke Plantage, Steph Sigurdson, Katie Hutchison, Sarah Johnson, Sarah Giebel, Ann Gadbois, Jasmine Wangen and Mariah Levisen.

&uot;We had a real good season,&uot; said Satre. &uot;A lot of girls improved skill-wise and gained a lot of confidence this season. The only part of their game that was lacking was confidence; when you have that, you’re complete.&uot;