HARRISBURG – The Harrisburg Tigers showed why they are one of the elite Class AA soccer teams in the state on Tuesday. The defending state champs blanked Aberdeen Central 5-0 in an Eastern South Dakota Conference contest.

“The girls played hard,” said Central coach Merle Aske. “We moved the ball OK, but we were just unable to hold any pressure on them at all, so we were playing on our heels most of the game.”

The Tigers scored back-to-back goals within three minutes of each other in the opening half and were off and running.

“When they got good looks they were able to put the ball in,” Aske said. “We just have to keep working, and keep developing. If we can get some players back healthy and try to make sure we keep our heads up and move forward, and keep working on the way we want to play, so we can force teams to play our kind of soccer instead of playing how they want to play.”

While facing the Tigers on the road is a difficult proposition, Aske said his team also needs to be prepared for those types of challenges.

“They’ve won the last three state championships and there’s a reason they won them. They’ve got some quality kids,” Aske said. “We just need to be able to do a better job of showing up ready to go. We’ve got a lot of trips to Sioux Falls coming up, yet.”

Central used a pair of goalies in the contest. Ave Beck finished with seven saves, and Kenley Stucke had six.

“Both of our golies I thought played pretty well,” Aske said. “I thought Addyson Keller and Paige Ewalt in the back line, both had really good games. They played hard. They did everything they could to try to keep the ball out. We just need to those kind of efforts going forward.”

The Golden Eagles have back-to-back games this weekend, hosting Rapid City Central at 7 p.m. Friday and Rapid City Stevens at 9 Saturday morning.

Aberdeen Central 0 0 – 0

Harrisburg 3 2 – 5

First Half: 1, H, Sairyn Nassar, 21st minute; 2, H, Taylor Syverson, 24th minute; 3, H, Bryan Skogen, 40th minute.

Second Half: 4, H, Noah Aware, 49th; 5, H, Auburn Barrett, 67th.

Goalies: Aberdeen Central, Kenley Stucke 6 saves, Ava Beck 7 saves; Harrisburg, Hailey Kaufman 1 save, Regan Schelske 2 saves.

Shots: Aberdeen Central, 14 shots, 3 on goal; Harrisburg, 29 shots, 18 on goal.