Soccer: Tea Area girls fight off St. Thomas More in Class A semifinals

TEA — There were a few factors working against the Tea Area girls in Monday's Class A semifinal against St. Thomas More. 

For starters, the top-seeded Titans (13-1-1) had yet to face the No. 4 Cavaliers, who closed out the regular season with five straight AA foes before slipping past Garretson in last Tuesday's quarterfinal. On top of that, the players had to adjust to an earlier start time (noon on a weekday) with a few of them still battling illnesses that have been lingering for the past week. 

#SDSOCCER19: Tea boys overcome sloppy start to trounce St. Thomas More in 'A' semifinals

State soccer: Monday's playoff results

These factors contributed to a less-than-perfect outing by the home team, but they were not enough to derail them entirely. 

Behind goals from Sydney Neuhardt and Brooke Deckert, Tea fought off STM, 2-1, to advance to the Class A championship game for the fourth time in five years.

"I'm not frustrated, not mad at the girls, but we weren't at our best today," coach Mark Anderson said. "I'm always wanting them to play to their potential because they're so good... (But) championship teams, they dig deep and they win games. We've done that this year."

The two sides took turns on the offensive before Neuhardt opened the scoring for Tea. The freshman defender took a pass from sophomore forward Kaitlin Kuhnert and quickly worked around her defender before blasting in a shot from the top of the box with 21:55 left in the half. 

Deckert extended the lead a few minutes into the second half, but then St. Thomas More went on the offensive, hemming the Titans into their own end for long stretches. 

"Our defense started dropping further back. I dropped as far back as I could to try and estimate how they would play," Tea senior defender Aspyn Thomassen said. "Then our offense tried to make quick plays to each other to get the ball up the field." 

Tea remained fairly aggressive on the counter-attack, breaking through for a few opportunities — including one off a set piece that STM sophomore forward Erica Howard kept away at the goal line —  but were unable to extend their lead. 

The Cavaliers continued to pressure the Titans, but Tea's back line held strong, preserving the shutout until the final minute when STM got on the board with 16 seconds remaining. 

"They have a veteran coach over there with Doug Noyes," Anderson said. "They've won a lot of championships, a lot of games. It doesn't matter what team he has. He'll coach them up and they'll come to play."

"We definitely could have done some things better, but I know we tried our hardest," Thomassen added. "We deserved it."

WEST CENTRAL LOOMS FOR TITANS

2019 marked the second consecutive year Tea reset the program record for wins and for the second straight season, it will face West Central in the Class A championship game after the No. 2 Trojans picked off No. 3 Sioux Falls Christian, 2-0, in the other semifinal. 

The Titans beat West Central 3-1 during the regular season, but two of their three championship game losses have come to the Trojans, who beat TAHS 3-1 in last year's final. 

"(West Central) has beaten us every single time we've played them at state," Thomassen said. "It's in our heads. We get into our own heads. But we have the abilities to beat them. We're a better team."

"I have eight seniors. This means a lot to them," Anderson added. "They want to play West Central... They (want) to end their high school careers by beating that team."

Follow Brian Haenchen on Twitter at @Brian_Haenchen.