ABERDEEN - The seventh-ranked Rapid City Stevens boys varsity soccer team knew they would have to defeat No. 10 Brookings on Wednesday to earn a shot in the Toyota Cup, which kicks off today.

And so they did.

"The defense today had a pretty good day," Stevens coach Brian Pitts said. "They had good organization."

Organization appeared to be pretty good on the offense, too. The Raiders opened the floodgates on their 4-0 victory over Brookings in the 14th minute of play on a free kick from junior defender Eric Moller. Aaron Foss, a junior forward, called for the ball and easily beat the Brookings keeper for the first Raider goal.

Ten minutes later, Foss took on the Brookings defense with the ball, then made a cross to midfielder Jeremy Maier. According to Coach Pitts, Maier's run to the back post resulted in "just a textbook goal."

Although they were up 2-0 at the half, Stevens gave Brookings several opportunities.

"We had our share of luck," Pitts said.

With a 2-0 score at half-time, Pitts made certain his team came out hard immediately to hang onto their two-goal lead. Only six minutes into the half, senior power man Matt Wolfe got onto a through ball with his superior effort and beat the keeper one on one.

Stevens' fourth and final goal came in the 88th minute, as Jeremy Maier picked up his second tally of the day from senior winger Barry Owen.

Stevens will face No. 2 Pierre at 11:30 a.m. today in the opening round of tournament play. When the two teams opened the season against one another in August, the match ended in a scoreless draw. Tournament rules will prevent that in this re-match.

Aberdeen 4, Rapid City Central 2

In a match that looked in the early stages like Rapid City Central would punch their ticket to the state tourney, there just wasn't quite enough in the end to prevail as Aberdeen won 4-2.

Midway through the first half, Central attacker Adam Neumiller was taken down in Aberdeen's penalty area and junior Ryan Keohane stepped up and scored on the penalty kick. Aberdeen answered back not long after that with a goal of their own.

Unfortunately for the Cobblers, they were down a key man soon after when senior center back Michael Crangle got tangled up with an Aberdeen player and a scuffle ensued. Unsure of which player instigated the affair, the center referee sent both players off. Even though Aberdeen Central was also missing a man, the loss of Crangle in the back would prove impossible to overcome.

The Cobblers scored again off a free kick that was headed in by senior forward Chris Sabrowski, who fought through two Aberdeen defenders to get his head on the ball. Central head coach Joe Sabrowski said that his side played much better soccer Wednesday and he was happy to go into halftime leading 2-1.

As the second half progressed, senior center back Drew Nelson's injured ankle became more and more of an issue. Aberdeen's speedy striker senior Lance Mohr, a dangerous finisher, tested the Cobbler backs several times, finishing two more goals. The final one caught the Cobblers shorthanded in the back with Central's players all pushed forward trying to equalize.

"We did great until the ball got to Mohr, but when he turned the corner on attack, we just didn't have quite enough to stop him," Coach Sabrowski said.

Central will play Brookings for ninth place today at noon.

"We played much better soccer today. We just needed to finish a few more of our chances. We'll have to see what happens tomorrow. But with Crangle out serving a red card, Drew Nelson's ankle bothering him and Trevor Peterson out injured it could be a challenging match for us," Sabrowski said.

James Valley Christian 3, St. Thomas More 1

St. Thomas More fell 3-1 to James Valley Christian in boys' varsity soccer in a pre-tournament play-in game at Aberdeen on Wednesday afternoon.

The format of the Toyota High School Cup allows 10 teams to travel to the State Tournament, but those teams that are not in the top six seeds must play one another for a berth in the eight-team tournament.

The state Class A rankings originally had St. Thomas More eleventh and out of the tournament. They found out Sunday night that they actually were the No. 10 seed and would be playing seventh-ranked James Valley Christian on Wednesday.

James Valley's Ethan Litwiller got on the board with a goal in the 33rd minute. The score quickly ran up to three, with goals from Jordan Stahl (36th minute) and Lee Glanzer (41st).

A more determined St. Thomas More team showed up in the second half. Cody Kopriva found Landon White in the 59th minute for the lone Cavalier goal. Although the Cavs held James Valley Christian scoreless in the second half, they were unable to make up any more of the goal deficit. The Cavs will play Groton at 9 a.m. today for ninth place.

In girls tournament action, seventh-ranked Sturgis defeated No. 10 Ipswich 3-1 in a play-in game Wednesday. No other details were available. Sturgis, 4-6-0, will play second-ranked Harrisburg (7-2-0) at 9:30 a.m. today.

Ipswich fell to 0-10-0 with the loss.