Packers blank Stewartville

Published 10:37 pm Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Austin's Pedro Herrera celebrates with teammates following his goal in the first half of their Section 1A playoff game against Stewartville at Art Hass Stadium. - Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com

The Packers poured in a season-high number of goals in an 8-0 win over No. 15 seeded Stewartville (0-12 overall) in the first round of the Section 1A boys soccer tournament Tuesday in Art Hass Stadium.

Rolando Rubio got it started for No. 2 seeded Austin (11-5-2 overall) as he penetrated from the left side and found Jake Hagen-Erickson who kicked in his first of two goals of the night in the sixth minute of the game.

“There was great ball movement and if we can keep that up, it’s going to be a fun section tournament,” said Hagen-Erickson, a sophomore. “It was a good experience and they’ll be more fun as they go on. We’ll play hard and come out like we do and stay consistent.”

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Francisco Torres weaved through the defense and found the back of the net in the 15th minute and Pedro Herrera made it 3-0 when Dante Ortiz found him on a breakaway in the 20th minute.

Austin's Francisco Torres takes a shot under pressure from Stewartville' Jacob Vetsch during the first half of their Section 1A playoff game at Art Hass Stadium. - Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com

Torres scored to make it 4-0 and Ortiz hit a penalty kick in the 24th minute to make it 5-0.

Austin, which will host No. 7 Winona (7-7-2 overall) Thursday at 7 p.m., pulled a lot of its starters in the second half as the game was put away.

“We had guys hurting after the busy week last week. If we didn’t need them tonight, we figured we’d let them rest tonight,” Austin head coach Jens Levisen said. “In the second half we had specific things that we wanted to work on and they tried to create those types of opportunities and we were able to do that.”

Collin Weisert had two saves in net for Austin, which beat Winona 2-1 in the regular season.

AUSTIN SCORING

First half

6th minute — Jake Hagen-Erickson (Rolando Rubio)

15th minute — Francisco Torres

20th minute — Pedro Herrera (Dante Ortiz)

22nd minute — Torres (Rubio)

24th minute — Ortiz penalty kick

30th minute — Nick Brehmer (Chaz Kieffer III)

Second half

48th minute — Zach Vierkandt penalty kick

77th minute — Jake Hagen-Erickson (Jordan Bentley)