Minnesota Aurora's magical season ends in overtime heartbreaker
EAGAN, Minn. -- The Minnesota Aurora lost in the USL W championship game Saturday night, dropping the match 2-1 to the South Georgia Tormenta.
This was the first loss of the Aurora's inaugural season. The team went 11-0-1 and won the Heartland Division before losing the final match.
Jaida Nyby scored for Tormenta only eight minutes into the match. The Aurora's Addy Symonds responded 14 minutes later with a goal of her own. Symonds only needed two touches before lining up her shot.
The two teams fought to a 1-1 tie at the end of the first 90 minutes of play. Minnesota Aurora goalkeeper Sarah Fuller made several critical stops to help her team hold on to the tie.
The Aurora nearly scored when Morgan Turner stepped up to take a penalty kick in the 111th minute after Tormenta was called for a hand ball. However, Tormenta's Martinez blocked the shot successfully.
Tormenta's Nyby scored her second goal of the match about 23 minutes into overtime to take the league championship.
The fan base has been building throughout their opening season, and tickets to the championship sold out in record time after the Aurora's semifinal victory over McLean Soccer.
The team led the league in attendance and saw a total attendance of nearly 6,500 fans on Saturday - a number TCO Stadium had never seen before.
"It was beautiful, just everything about it. I think this is an incredible example of what community means and people believing in women's sports and what it can turn into," Fuller said. "It was just incredible all the way around, from the competition, obviously Tormenta played amazing, but I think we played amazing all season and I'm very proud of everything."
