HERMANTOWN — It didn’t take long for Duluth East’s Lilly Kuettel to make her presence felt during the Greyhounds game at Hermantown.
Going into Wednesday’s game, she had scored 12 goals in East’s last five games and the Hawks knew it was a priority to stop the sophomore forward.
With two Hawks trying to deny her the ball in front of the Hermantown goal, Anya Holmstrom got a clean look and buried a shot in the top right corner in the third minute of play.
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Kuettel found the back of the net in the 11th minute and again in the 14th. She finished with three for the day, bringing her total to 25 for the season in an 8-0 win for the Greyhounds.
Last week, Kuettel tied an East school record with six goals in a game against Cambridge-Isanti, added a hat trick in a win over Irondale and two more in a win at Denfeld Tuesday.
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Kuettel’s 25 goals are good enough for seventh in Minnesota, regardless of class.
If Kuettel was the only lethal scoring threat coach Steve Polkowski could put on the field it would be one thing, but he’s also got freshman Darby Friday on the roster. Friday has added six goals and seven assists in the same span Kuettel scored 13. Her 14 assists ties her for sixth in the state, regardless of class.
Combined the pair have 37 goals this season and East hasn’t lost since a 2-0 loss to Stillwater Sept. 7. Even better for the Greyhounds, they’ve scored at least four goals in all but one of the eight wins they’ve had since the Stillwater loss.
Clint Austin / Duluth Media Group
“That’s production for a lot of teams in a year, so their ability to find the back of the net is elite,” Polkowski said. “To have two on the same team is a gift because you often don’t get one. If you try to shut Lilly down, then Darby is probably going to go off and if you just play level, then they’re both very dangerous.”
While this is the first season they’ve been paired together at the high school level, but they’ve played club soccer together for years.
“Darby and I know how to run off of each other,” Kuettel said. “Our chemistry has been a lot better and I feel like since I’ve had Darby with me, I’ve had a lot more opportunities than in the past and I owe it all to her.”
Friday, for her part, pointed the finger right back at Kuettel and their Greyhounds teammates for helping her to build confidence.
Clint Austin / Duluth Media Group
“The team was a lot of help guiding me and Lilly always tells me where to play it — exactly where she wants it,” Friday said. “She makes me look good scoring off my passes and I feel like I come into every game knowing that I’m going to cook.”
It’s not just Kuettel and Friday pushing this team to one of its best seasons in years; it all starts with the Greyhounds defense.
“Our defense has been able to move the ball and they’ve all been able to connect,” Kuettel said. “Everybody on our team has so much composure and I feel like it’s our back line that’s bonding our team together. Every ball start from our back line, from our goal to the defense and then to the midfield and our forwards.”
East (12-3) will play at noon Saturday at South St. Paul to finish the season, but is likely to get the top seed in for the Section 7AAA tournament. The Greyhounds are looking to punch their ticket to state for the first time since 2010.
“That would mean everything to me,” Kuettel said. “Our team has put in a lot of hard work in the offseason — a lot of us play club — and just those extra touches and things throughout the season have prepared us for this.”
After graduating 15 seniors last year, East was a little bit of an “unknown” coming into the season, according to Polkowski. However, they’ve worked, built their confidence and become comfortable in their position.
“We’re going to be working on the little things,” he said. “We’ll work on set pieces, dead balls and just having a belief that what we’ve done for the last 15-16 games isn’t a fluke and we can continue it on — hopefully for six games past the regular season.”
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Hermantown boys sting East in regular-season finale
Clint Austin / Duluth Media Group
Hermantown’s Owen Landrigan scored in the 70th minute to put the Hawks up, and they held on for a 2-1 win over Duluth East Wednesday.
The Greyhounds’ Connor Lehr scored in the 30th minute, but Greff Mellin got the equalizer just before the half ended.
East looked to have a go-ahead goal midway through the second half, but it was waved off because of offsides and Landrigan came through a few minutes later.
Hermantown freshman Nolan Manion made seven saves in just his fourth varsity game and East’s Gray Knutson had five.
Jamey Malcomb has a been high school sports reporter for the Duluth News Tribune since October 2021. He spent the previous six years covering news and sports for the Lake County News-Chronicle in Two Harbors and the Cloquet Pine Journal. He graduated from the George Washington University in 1999 with a bachelor’s degree in history and literature and also holds a master’s degree in secondary English education from George Mason University.
