By Rodney Haas 
605 Sports 

SIOUX FALLS — Toward the end of the regular season, Sioux Falls Roosevelt coach Corissa Bonte noticed something wasn’t right with her team.

“I was so X’s and O’s and this is what we have to do,” Bonte said. “I took a step back and realized that my girls are not playing together and that’s the most important.”

In order to build the team chemistry that was needed, Bonte started doing some team bonding exercises that she said the players thought was “silly”

However silly the team bonding was, it proved to be pivotal on Saturday in the Class AA girls state soccer championship match against Rapid City Stevens. 

Tied at 1-1 at the end of regulation, the match continued through the two 5-minute overtime periods until it came down to penalty kicks where Halle Miller hit the match clinching kick to give the Rough Riders a 2-1 win. 

“We did some silly team bonding things that they thought silly at the time but it turned out it worked out really well and I think that’s the biggest thing that helped us out,” Bonte said. “They played together as a team and not individuals.”

Shea Ellender put the Stevens on the board with a goal in the 19^th minute before Roosevelt’s Isabel Peterson tied it at 1-1 in the 74^th minute.

“I think my girls see that (team bonding) now and I think they saw that after the first playoff game,” Bonte said. “At first they thought this was silly and why are we doing this, but after that first playoff game they really realized they can start playing together and they can play some really good soccer when they do.”

Yankton’s William Pavlish tries to advance the ball up field while Sioux Falls O’Gorman’s Nickolas North looks on during the Bucks’ 1-0 win over the Knights in the Boys Class AA soccer championship Saturday night at Howard Wood Field in Sioux Fall
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Class AA Boys Soccer championship
Yankton 1, Sioux Falls O’Gorman 0

Yankton’s Braylen Bietz broke a 0-0 tie in the 74^th minute to lift the Bucks to their first state championship in boys’ soccer. 

Sioux Falls Christian’s Eli Gillett gets tangled up with Tea Area’s Ryan Del Monaco during the Chargers’ 3-1 win over the Titans in the Class A boys soccer championship on Saturday at Howard Wood Field in Sioux Falls. (Rodney Haas/605sports
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Class A boys Soccer Championship
Sioux Falls Christian 3, Tea Area 1

Sioux Falls Christian scored three unanswered goals in the second half to capture its third Class A boys championship.

“We played 14 games this season and we went undefeated. That is quite an achievement,” Sioux Falls Christian coach Ephron Poyer said.

Ashdan Farrell penalty kick in the 41^st minute Tea Area on the board. However, in the second half it was all Chargers with Tyson Reitsma scoring two goals, one in the 59^th minute and the other coming in the 67^th minute. Emerson Brazones gave the Chargers a 2-1 lead with a goal in the 60^th minute. 

“This is the second time this season we had to come back from being a goal down and to do it in the state championship, that’s good stuff,” Poyer said.

 

Class A girls Soccer championship
West Central 2, Dakota Valley 1

West Central’s Rylee Haldeman scored her second goal in the 76^th minute to give the Trojans back-to-back state titles.

“The girls fought hard and they didn’t give up when they gave up that PK and they just kept encouraging one another,” West Central coach Greg Anderson said. 

Haldeman got West Central on the board in the sixth minute before Dakota Valley’s Emma Deacon tied it at 1-1 on a penalty kick in the 67^th minute.

The win marks the fifth state title for West Central as the Trojans won it all in 2016-18 and again last year