The Albert Lea U-16 boys team advanced to the MYSA State Tournament with a 5 -1 victory over St. Peter in a Southwest District game held in Mankato July 15.

Although the final score seems lopsided, the outcome was not decided until after the midway point of the second half

Offensively, Albert Lea struggled in the first half and St. Peter did a good job of controlling the action and out shot Albert Lea. Phil Runden put Albert Lea on the board first with a goal 10 minutes into the first half. St. Peter found the net, tying the game, just before the end of the first half with a long pass that deflected off an Albert Lea defender, bouncing to a St. Peter player who knocked it in.

Albert Lea’s defense, anchored by Dave Anderson at sweeper and Adam Hutchison at the goalie position, did a great job of denying St. Peter any more scoring opportunities than they had.

Hutchison made a number of key saves to keep Albert Lea in the game at half.

Albert Lea took the lead about five minutes into the second half when Jacob Winkels centered a free kick right in front of the goal to a waiting Richie Needham, who finished the play. Chris Rahn put the game away a few minutes later by scoring three straight goals, just minutes apart from each other. “When Chris gets going, he is hard to stop.” Coach Hutchison said. “He finally got himself in the right position and got some nice passes and assists from his teammates and was able to knock them in.”

Albert Lea will begin State tournament action today at 5 p.m. in Blaine at the National Sports Center. They will play two more games in pool play Saturday and Sunday.