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Updated: July 7, 7:30 a.m. | Posted: July 6, 2:15 p.m.

Minnesota Aurora FC prevailed Thursday afternoon in the Central Conference semifinals with a 1-0 lead over Chicago City SC. It’s the team’s second consecutive semifinal win, in its second year in the USL W league.

Riding a 7-0 victory from the team’s Saturday match against Chicago, the teams played in Flint, Mich. 

During the hot, rainy game — with 67 percent humidity — Aurora’s first and only goal came from midfielder Arianna Del Moral. 

Del Moral scored the only goal of the game on a direct penalty kick, within the first 30 minutes.

“A lot of obviously pressure in the moment, but I'm glad I was able to finish it and we were able to get the results,” she said. 

Minnesota Aurora capped off its regular season with 12 wins, no losses and no ties; the semifinal score brings their record to 13-0-0. The team leads the pre-professional women’s USL W League in goals scored, tallying 61 this season.

Minnesota dominated Thursday’s game from start to finish, with 28 shots, 16 on target. They held Chicago to zero shots and were strong even through a torrential downpour that arrived late in the first half.

The team is used to playing in front of 5,000-6,000 fans at their home stadium in Eagan, but the stadium in Flint was relatively sparse. Even so, handful of diehard supporters made the nearly 700-mile trek.

Adam Connely is part of the Aurora fan club, known as the Revontulet. He and his wife drove in from St. Paul for the game. They brought flags, one of which Connely waved throughout the game.

Connely said they've been fans from the start. He said he’s happy to see how many people have joined in that support.

“You go to any other USL W match, and it's, you know, maybe if they're lucky, dozens of people in the stands,” he said. “You come to an aurora match, and a bad game is 4,500 to 5,000 people. So it's, it is kind of surprising and wonderful to see. It's a great surprise.”

They wanted to support a league that would help give more opportunities for women in soccer. 

“It is the tipping point now for women's sports, I think everybody has finally recognized that these athletes are tremendous,” said Andrea Yoch, the team chair and one of the original founders of the team. She said the success of the team and the popularity home and away have been amazing for her and the other founders.

“It just means the world that they would show up, you can see our players respond during introductions, and that we have created something together as a community that everybody feels like an important part of, is something that we can never say thank you enough for,” Yoch said. 

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The team is hoping to keep their playoff success going in the next round. Coach Nicole Lukic said there were some nerves coming into the game, but she says the team was prepared. 

She says despite beating Chicago City 7-0 in their last meeting, she knew drawing them in the playoffs would be tough.

“I thought Chicago City did really well. Just defending and cutting off our passing lanes and we created a lot of scoring opportunities, and they just didn't go our way today, so one was enough and great job already being composed and putting away the [penalty kick],” she said. 

Chicago City SC’s season comes to an end at 8-4-1.

The Minnesota Aurora plays the Central Conference Final at 2 p.m. Saturday against Indy Eleven, which beat Flint City 3-0 on Thursday. 

Correction (July 7, 2023): A previous version of this story incorrectly stated the Minnesota Aurora FC Chair title. This has been fixed.

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