The time of the year we all wait for is here: playoffs. The Holy Family Fire soccer team is in the midst of their playoff run. The Fire, for the first time in school history, have reached the MSHSL state tournament. The Fire played the Waconia Wildcats last Tuesday, October 16th, for the opportunity to go to state. The Fire played a tough opponent into overtime. The Fire had played Waconia earlier this season @Waconia which they won 1-0. This time around was a little different; the Fire were without their top player, Luke Puklich, who is tied for 6th in the state with 13 assists on the year. Without his offensive spark, the Fire were stagnant on offense, having few opportunities for goals. There were a few close calls both ways for the first 80 minutes of game, but no one delivered as the game went into overtime with a score of 0-0. The star of the overtime period was Joe Fasching. Joe scored the game-winning goal just 37 seconds into OT. Fasching and the Fire were noticeably irritated throughout the game at Waconia’s game plan – force the game into penalty kicks. After the game the hero took us into his mind at that point in the game, “We were noticing that Waconia was trying to stall out the game to penalty kicks to give them their best chance at winning, and we knew that our best chance of winning was keeping it in normal play; winning in regulation. So our team setting up the play for the winning goal in the first minute of overtime was a large release of tension for us all.” The Fire are not satisfied with just reaching state, they want to make their presence known. The Fire play Austin H.S tomorrow, October 24th, at 7:30pm @Prior Lake H.S. Austin shares the same record as the Fire (13-2), but a sign of optimism is that the Fire are ranked one slot above Austin in the MN Soccer Hub Rankings. The game should be evenly matched, and we hope the Fire can get it done. A win would allow them to play @US Bank Stadium next Tuesday, October 30th against the winner of #1 seeded Blake and Duluth Denfeld H.S.