Soccer tournaments take center stage

Soccer takes center stage for the next two weeks with a new look to cap the 2021 season. A third enrollment class to the tournament format makes the first change to the boys and girls soccer state event since 1997 when the move was made from a single-class tournament to two classes.

Three days of quarterfinals begin on Tuesday and will continue through Thursday at six Minnesota high school venues. The host sites: Eden Prairie, Edina, Farmington, Irondale, Monticello and Waconia. Next week, the tournament shifts gears to U.S. Bank Stadium in downtown Minneapolis for the semifinals on Nov. 3 and 4 with six championship games scheduled on Nov. 6. Third-place games will be played Nov. 4 and 5 at the West St. Paul Regional Athletics Center.

 The 2020 state tournament was cancelled because of the global pandemic. Instead, competition culminated at the section level.

This season, there are three top seeds for each class and each gender.

In the girls tournament, Holy Family Catholic (Class A), Benilde-St. Margaret’s (Class AA) and Edina (Class AAA) are the top seeds. On the boys side, Southwest Christian (Class A), Orono (Class AA) and Minneapolis Southwest (Class AAA) have been tabbed as the team’s to beat.

In what proved to be final year of the two-class era in 2019, Maple Grove won the Class AA crown and Mahtomedi won the Class A title. It had been Mahtomedi’s third consecutive championship and a state-best ninth overall. Mahtomedi has qualified this season in the Class AA field.

On the boys side in 2019, Edina captured the Class AA championship and Holy Angels clinched the Class A crown. Both schools have returned two seasons later. Edina is in the Class AAA field and Mahtomedi competes in Class AA.