Girls soccer: Detroit Lakes shuts out St. Cloud Apollo

ST. CLOUD – The Detroit Lakes girls soccer team is on a winning streak.

After dropping the first four games of the season, the Lakers beat St. Cloud Apollo 1-0 on Saturday after winning their first match two days earlier in Crookston.

"Our current two-game win streak builds up our confidence by seeing success," Detroit Lakes head coach Ben Aastuen said. "It is tough to want to keep working hard when you're not seeing positive results, so this really helps that. The other part is that our players are putting our practices into games and seeing success with these tactics. That encourages them to keep working hard in practice."

In the 65th minute, Haydon King scored the game's lone goal with an assist from Kaydence Swiers.

"Haydon is quite fast, so we have been utilizing some through balls that drop in behind the defense that she can run on to, and Kaydence hit a perfect ball over the defense that Haydon pressured," Aastuen said. "The Apollo keeper mishandled it, and Haydon capitalized on the mistake and put the ball in the net."'

Elle Bettcher posted her first clean sheet of the season. She made eighth saves on 14 shot attempts.

The Lakers hit the road to play Hillcrest Lutheran Academy on Tuesday.

"This past game, our defense really stepped up, our midfielders were completing great passing patterns and our forwards were pressuring through balls and getting so many offensive opportunities," Aastuen said. "These are all really positive steps, and we need to keep this up and get faster going into the rest of our season. I'm super proud of our girls and can't wait to continue to improve."