All-Minnesota Girls Soccer Player of the Year: St. Cloud Tech's Molly Burkstrand

After a St. Cloud Tech girls soccer game, the Player of the Match gets a beaded friendship bracelet in the colors of the opposing team.

Tigers forward Molly Burkstrand should have enough of those that her arms look like a busy fan collecting beaded mementos at a Taylor Swift concert.

Her 62 goals for the Tigers broke a 20-year-old Minnesota State High School League record and sent St. Cloud Tech to a state tournament for the first time since 2001. The Bemidji State commit scored in every one of the Tigers' matches, including a 2-1 section championship win over Alexandria. She helped transform a team that won zero games when Burkstrand was in eighth grade to a team that went 15-4-1 before losing 3-1 to Mankato East in the state quarterfinals.

But that scoring prowess is only part of why Burkstrand was named the Star Tribune's All-Minnesota Girls Soccer Player of the Year.

"Our chemistry and trust in each other has definitely only gotten stronger over the years," Burkstrand said. "We're a way closer team than we were when I first came to the program."

But Burkstrand doesn't get every bracelet, nor does she want them. She's quick to point to the team, and to her friend and teammate Maggie O'Hara, who leads the state in assists. When asked about how it felt to break the record or win Class 2A's Ms. Soccer award, she quietly shrugged.

"It kind of just feels the same," she said. "Like just another goal."

She did get a bracelet against Willmar for scoring eight times. It's the kind of stat line that might raise eyebrows. Why not bench Molly? Why run up her stats? But the Tigers were down 5-2, and Burkstrand's goal-scoring spree put them ahead 9-5.

"We also are trying to be respectful in that sense of not forcing that record," coach Katie Boardman said. When Burkstand hit 40 goals, the coaches looked up the record. When she hit 50, it suddenly seemed possible. "We just want it to happen naturally and organically."

Burkstrand got another beaded keepsake when she cracked 100 career goals, the first player to do so in St. Cloud Tech history. The Tech girls soccer program doesn't draw as much player turnout as some of its neighbors, with players often doing double duty on varsity and junior varsity, and no C team.

She drives 80 minutes one way to North Oaks to play club soccer, competes with college players in the summer and does strength and speed work in the offseason. While Burkstrand might play in a smaller size classification, Boardman said she is, undeniably, a game-changer.

"She can beat girls with speed. She can shoot from deep. She can see what the team's giving her and go that way," Boardman said. "She's put in the work."

And entered the record books doing so.