GROTON – They have been here before, and now the Groton girls’ soccer team is hungry and motivated for a different result.

The Tigers, who fell in the Class A state championship contest a year ago, will get another chance to play for the state title when they face Sioux Falls Christian at 5 p.m. Saturday at Crane-Youngwirth Field in Yankton.

This year the squad heads into the final game with a new coach, but one that is familiar with postseason soccer. Matt Baumgartner was a member of Aberdeen Central’s state runner-up squad in 2013.

“I’ve been in a title game before, these girls have all been in a title game before. I’ve been a runner-up and they’ve been a runner-up before,” Baumgartner said, “so hopefully we can correspond that and look for the right path this time.”

While Baumgartner is new to the Groton coaching ranks, he is not foreign with the players. He coached the likes of seniors Laila Roberts, Brooklyn Hansen, and Kennedy Hansen on a traveling team last summer.

“It was great to kind of have a jump start with a couple of them and having get used to their kind of playing styles,” Baumgartner said. “And how they mimic and they take their first touch kind of helps bring some tactics out with my style.”

Make no mistake, Baumgartner who also played for Presentation College, is a student of the game. He doesn’t just roll the ball onto the pitch and tell the players run down the field. He pays attention to every small detail.

“To me that’s kind of how I’ve always studied, how you position your body, your hips are facing the body, do you want to turn left or right, your first touch should be this way, use the outside of your foot if you want to get around someone quicker,” Baumgartner said. “We’ve kind of worked on 1-2 touches and getting around like in a U shape or a C shape, and things like that in practice. Always keeping the shoulders bouncing, always keeping the toes bouncing, just kind of always looking to hit it off and go quick.”

In fact, Baumgartner is such a fanatic for details, that he had tinkered with the Groton lineup all season, despite the team’s 9-1-1 record.

“I’ve had 10 different starting lineups in 11 of my games,” he said.

He keeps specific notes on every game trying to gain whatever he can use to help the Tigers every time they hit the pitch.

“I have 4,200 words written about my season so far,” Baumgartner said. “I have my pre-game notes, I have after-game notes. … I just kind of like to jot down notes here and there, and kind of why did I do this here and why did I do that there?”

He said that while starting lineups change from game to game, it doesn’t mean that playing time dwindles. It’s a matter of finding the right combination for the current opposition.

“I know my rotations and what I want to do, and how it wants to work,” Baumgartner said.

He also noted that he is not a proponent of change for the sake of change.

“I kind of go off that philosophy if it isn’t broke don’t fix it,” Baumgartner said, “but it’s not necessarily that I’m fixing things, I’m just rotating bodies in a different spot.”

On paper, Sioux Falls Christian (11-2-2) and Groton (9-1-1) appear very similar. The Chargers have 53 goals, while Groton has scored 49. SFC has six seniors and the Tigers have seven. Both are led in scoring by sophomores. So it only stands to reason that on the pitch the two teams were also very comparable, their first meeting ending in a 1-1 draw during the opening week of the season.

Groton is led in scoring by McKenna Tietz with 13 goals, while Laila Roberts is close behind with 10.

Last season the Tigers battled to a scoreless half against Tea Area in the state title contest, before the Titans pulled away for a 3-1 victory.

Baumgartner said being 40 minutes away from a state title has driven the Groton players all year.

“I think the fuel they were one half away last year from winning, that’s going to be some extra motivation,” Baumgartner said. “Like I said, if you want to put a banner in your gymnasium, now’s the perfect opportunity to do it.”

Baumgartner noted the players are healthy, the motivation is there, and now it’s just a matter of going out, doing their jobs, and encouraging each other in the title contest.

“We talk attitude and effort are the two things you can control on the field,” Baumgartner said. “If we can get that, there’s no reason why we can’t be state champions.”