MINNEAPOLIS — The Austin boys soccer team was knocked out of state title contention when it lost to The Blake School by a score of 3-1 in the Minnesota Class A State Boys Soccer Semifinals in USBank Stadium Tuesday.

The Bears (18-1-2 overall) led 2-0 at halftime and they put things away after they took a 3-1 lead when Keegan James connected on a penalty kick with 28:10 left in the game.

The Packers were able to create some scoring opportunities throughout the game, but Blake’s defense made things very difficult.

“They supplied a lot of pressure in the midfield,” Austin head coach Jens Levisen said. “There were times when we were able to get our passing rhythm going and there were other times that they disrupted it.”

The Packers had cranked up the intensity early in the second half when Henry Tolbert scored off a pass from Kevin Ortiz to bring Austin within 2-1 just four minutes into the second, but they weren’t able to do any more damage. After scoring his goal, Tolbert had two shots sail just wide of the net as Austin (17-3 overall) tried to make a second half push.

“I was thinking about getting another goal and tying it up so we could go to overtime,” Tolbert said.

Top-seeded Blake took the lead for good when Luke Melin scored on a shot from about 20 yards out off a series of deflections around the net to make it 1-0 with 21:28 left in the first half.

The No. 4 seeded Packers showed a little frustration after that goal as the team picked up three yellow cards within 15 minutes of the score. The Bears scored their second goal of the game shortly after the third card when Will Mortenson was able to get a clear shot from close-range off a pass from Blake Lundberg. Mortenson fired it through to make it 2-0.

“They broke down our sides pretty well. They got there a lot,” Austin junior defender Dylan Hannegraaf said. “We did a pretty good job in the middle, but on their outside runs we weren’t able to mark up on them. It forced us to get out of our position and that led to those two goals on crosses. I thought we played a pretty good game on defense, there were just breaks where we weren’t communicating well.”

Levisen didn’t let his team lose focus after the Packers trailed at the break.

“Being down 2-0 at halftime, we went into the locker room and we talked about how we were on the other side of this coin last year when we were up 2-0,” Levisen said. “We knew we could make something happen.”

Austin had a chance to grab the lead early on as Mooday Wah launched a corner kick that landed just out of reach of Andres Garcia only eight minutes into the game.

The Packers, who took third place in last year’s state tournament, will play in the third place game against Academy of Holy Angels (18-1-1 overall) in USBank Stadium at 10 a.m.

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