High school girls soccer: Woodbury holds off White Bear Lake

The Woodbury Royals girls varsity soccer team defended its home turf on parents night against the conference rival White Bear Lake Bears on Tuesday night, winning 2-1.

Both teams came into the game with a lot to lose. Not only did the game have huge implications for who may end up conference champs, with the two squads were tied for first in the conference. Both teams also owned a spot in the top 10 of the state rankings.

Woodbury took the lead with 22 minutes, 25 seconds left in the first half thanks to a strike from freshman forward Clara Fedunok, and the Royals went into the break clinging to that lead.

Sophomore forward Ivella Barba padded the lead with a score 11 minutes into the second half, and Woodbury sat firmly in the driver seat.

White Bear Lake answered with a goal with 24 minutes left in the game, only the fourth given up by Woodbury all season. The Bears applied pressure the remainder of the game, but they didn’t have quite enough time to complete the comeback.

White Bear Lake co-head coach John Dierkhising praised his team for its effort, knowing what was at stake in the game.

“We knew the winner of the game would pretty much claim the conference. So people knew, the girls knew, so we were excited for it,” Dierkhising said. “I thought we came and competed, the girls worked their tails off, but just couldn’t get it done tonight.”

Woodbury co-head coach Pat Malicki said the team knew how big of a challenge White Bear Lake was, and how good some of their players were. They had to be ready for them.

“They were undefeated coming in,” Malicki said. “We had a tie in the conference. We know how dangerous they are, finishing. They’ve got some big time players that continue to produce game and game again. So we just prepared our girls to deal with their players, and go from there. We’ve got great leadership. The girls are really focused and dialed in and putting in the effort.”

White Bear Lake takes on Forest Lake at home next on Thursday at 7 p.m. Woodbury travels to Mounds View on Thursday, with a game time of 7 p.m.