Aberdeen Central made one final playoff impression on Thursday before the postseason gets started on Tuesday.

The Golden Eagles earned a 1-0 Eastern South Dakota Conference girls’ soccer win over Pierre at Brownell Activities Complex in a game that had major playoff implications. Central will likely now be able to host at least two games in the playoffs provided it wins in the opening round.

After coming off a big win on Tuesday against Mitchell, Central coach Merle Aske felt his team had a strong performance against the Governors.

“We put forth a lot of effort,” Aske said. “We had a big game on Tuesday, and coming off of that we had one day to prepare, but the girls did a good job of just fighting through. It wasn’t their best game, by far, but we did what we needed to do. We got a goal and we held them off.”

Central’s lone goal came in the 28th minute on a penalty kick by Kailyn Poppen. The penalty came after a scrum in the box led to a Pierre penalty, giving the Golden Eagles a chance to score. Poppen made sure to seize the moment.

“I practice those before practice every day,” Poppen said. “It wasn’t even a little nerve racking at all. I knew it was going in.”

Aske was thankful for the series of events that led to the goal.

“You don’t really like to win a game on a call like that, but it is what it is,” Aske said. “We got the ball in the back of the net, and then we just played the rest of the game.”

After the goal, the Golden Eagles were able to rely on their defense to win the game.

“Our defense worked really hard to clear it out as much as they can,” Poppen said. “I know they got tired, so we had to try to help that. We kind of got scrambled at points, but it all worked out in the end.”

Aske said defensive organization was key throughout the game.

“We just did a great of of staying organized in the back and making sure that we didn’t give them any open looks,” Aske said. “They never got one in behind us. That’s the big key.”

Central (10-2) will now look forward to the Class AA playoffs, which begin next Tuesday, and Poppen said the team will need to focus on teamwork over the next few days.

“We really need to focus on working together,” Poppen said, “and when we get all jumbled together, we need to just cool off and take a deep breath to move forward as a team.”

Aske said the team will need to focus on preparing for each game moving forward.

“Now it’s just a matter of getting ourselves mentally ready and physically ready,” Aske said. “In the playoffs it’s a matter of getting on a roll, finding a way to put the other team under pressure and finding your goals. We usually do a pretty good job of that. Now, it’s just a matter of putting that into play and making sure all of our pieces are ready.”

Pierre (8-4-1) 0 0 – 0

Aberdeen Central (10-2) 1 0 – 1

First Half: 1, AC, Kailyn Poppen (penalty kick), 28th minute.

Second Half: No scoring.

Shots: Pierre 17 (8 on goal); Aberdeen Central 22 (9 on goal).

Goalies: Pierre, Emlyn Swanson (8 saves); Aberdeen Central, Ciara Frank (8 saves).