News Tribune staff writer
For 441 minutes this season, Kaylee Steen was perfect. The Hermantown senior goalkeeper hadn't yielded a goal until she was beaten by -- who else -- Cloquet's Hannah Roy.
Roy, the previous player to sneak a ball past the Hawks' keeper back on Oct. 16, 2007, scored in the 42nd minute Thursday to end Steen's five-plus match shutout streak to start the season.
Remaining unblemished, however, was Hermantown's record (6-0 overall, 4-0 Lake Superior Conference) as the host Hawks went on to beat Cloquet 3-1 in an LSC match at Corey Veech Memorial Field.
SHUTOUT STREAK
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Steen and the Hawks cruised to victories of 7-0, 4-0, 6-0, 4-0 and 8-0 in their first five matches, leaving Roy's second tally of a 4-0 Lumberjacks victory in the 2007 Section 7A semifinals the most recent goal against Steen. Thursday's goal was Roy's third in her past two matches against Steen.
"It went off my foot kind of funny; I thought it was going to go over [the net]. It just barely went over her fingers," said Roy, a senior midfielder who has two goals this season for Cloquet (2-2-2, 1-0 LSC).
Steen's streak lasted 472 minutes dating back to the final 31 minutes of the 2007 season.
"Before the game, I try not to think about [the streak] too much. But, of course, it does come to mind, and there's a little bit more pressure," Steen said. "But you can't stop everything."
AGGRESSIVE OFFENSE AND TOUGH DEFENSE
Hermantown coach Scott Larson said Steen's strong play in goal allows the Hawks' defenders to take chances on the offensive end.
"They know that they can get aggressive past the [defensive half of the field]," Larson said. "And if they get beat, they have the confidence in [sweeper] Hannah [Buchite] and they all have the confidence in Kaylee Steen because she's just an incredible athlete, so we can open up a little more."
The junior Buchite led a defense, which includes juniors Claire Gibbons and Kara Annoni and senior Krista Anderson, to a number of great stops in front of Steen on Thursday.
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"It definitely makes me feel a lot more comfortable knowing that all the pressure's not on me," Steen said. "They take some of it off of me."
