REPLAY: Dominican edges St. Joseph’s on Hughes second half goal to reach Division I girls soccer semifinals

NEW ORLEANS – In a LHSAA Division I girls soccer quarterfinal match that started at a high pace, No. 4 Dominican and No. 5 St. Joseph’s settled into a match fitting of two closely-seeded teams.

The difference was a 72nd minute goal by sophomore Bradley Hughes to give Dominican a 2-1 victory Monday night at Pan American Stadium. A transition chance came when junior midfielder Stella French played a cross into the 18-yard area from wide right towards sophomore forwards Kelsey Major in front of the net. The ball deflected behind Major and a pair of defenders toward the trailing Hughes, who banged in the decisive goal with her right foot past keeper Riley White.

The match was delayed 25 minutes after the Mount Carmel-Central Lafourche quarterfinal needed extra time earlier in the evening.

Dominican led 1-0 in first half after confusion in the back by the Redstickers led to an own goal.

After halftime, St. Joseph’s (16-6-5) responded when Dominican keeper Olivia Icamina decided to play a bounding ball off her feet rather than pick it up, and a hustling Olivia Hupperich made a play on the ball resulted in contact. Icamina received both an ankle injury that took her out of the match for several minutes and a yellow card that set up a successful penalty kick by sophomore Grace Ann Crisafi slotted perfectly past backup keeper Rowan French inside the right post.

However, Dominican (19-1-8) played steady with their second one-goal advantage and controlled the ball a majority of the time down the stretch to move on to the semifinals and a matchup with No. 1 Northshore.

Watch the Dominican-St. Joseph’s replay: