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  • Mankato West’s Andrew Rorick battles for the ball with a Faribault player in the first half of a Big Nine Conference game Tuesday at Dakota Meadows Middle School. Pat Christman

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September 1, 2010

West tops Faribault 3-0 in rain-shortened opener

Rorick, Baerg, Dang score for Scarlets

By Tyler Buckentine Free Press Staff Writer

NORTH MANKATO — A lighting bolt from the east prompted school officials to cancel the remainder of a boys soccer game between Mankato West and Faribault on Tuesday at Dakota Meadows Middle School.

The Scarlets had a three-goal lead after 54 minutes of play, but Minnesota State High School League rules state that 40 minutes — or one half — is all that is needed to be considered a game.

The result: West won its home opener 3-0 for its first Big Nine Conference win.

“You don’t have to finish it as long as you get a half in,” said Scarlets coach Leonard Woelfel. “You look out at the sky, and you don’t know when the next (flash of lightning) is going to be.”

West got all the offense it needed in the first 50 seconds of the game. Andrew Rorick had the ball left of the Faribault goal and dribbled around the perimeter of the goal box, dancing around Falcons defenders before he got the ball to Tanner Johnson.

Johnson hit Rorick on the give-and-go, and Rorick buried his second goal of the season.

“(Rorick) plays at a high level during the summer so he brings that to our team,” Woelfel said. “Sometimes he needs to get rid of the ball a little sooner, sometimes he needs to hang on to it. This instant, it worked out that he held on to it long enough to dish it off, get it back and finish.”

The Scarlets almost got another goal when Zachary Fox picked off a goal kick, but his shot hit the post and Faribault was able to clear. West controlled the first half and stayed on the attack for a majority of the 40 minutes and finished with 12 shots, five on goal.

A Faribault defender was called for tripping inside the box to set up a penalty kick for West. Tim Baerg took the shot, freezing Faribault goalkeeper Andrew Benson as the ball zipped past him.

West senior Nicholas Wiemers made the most important of his four saves in the 42nd minute when he dove to his left to stop the shot but lost the rebound. He scrambled to dive on the ball before any Falcons could converge on the play.

The Scarlets added another goal eight minutes into the second half when Baerg’s cross from the left side landed on Chudier Dang’s forehead and ended up in the back of the goal.

With 26 minutes to go in the second half, referee Lee Tesdell spotted a lightning bolt and postponed the game. For each lightning bolt, the game must be delayed 30 minutes and as time ticked down on the postponement, there was another bolt causing another delay.

Because the pitch at Dakota Meadows has no lights, and an open house was to be held in the school that night, the game was finally called and West got the victory.

“You might get 25 minutes into the delay and be ready to go and then there’s another (bolt) and it’s another half-hour,” Woelfel said. “Then you have to determine how many (bolts) have happened, how late and how much time you have.”

The Scarlets (2-1, 1-1 in Big Nine) play Worthington at 5 p.m. Thursday at Dakota Meadows in their last home game until Sept. 23.

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