Hamilton and Pinnacle. Both girls soccer champs a year ago. Hamilton in 5A-I. Pinnacle in 5A-II.

With only one championship trophy available for the two this year,  it figured the margin to the victor would be slim in their semifinal matchup on Thursday.

Hamilton freshman Kylie Miniefield scored the game's lone goal in the 21st minute and the Huskies used it to topple Pinnacle,1-0, in a Division I semifinalat Campo Verde High School.

Hamilton (18-3-1)  goes for its repeat on Saturday against East Valley rival Highland at 3:30 p.m. at Campo Verde. Highland will be looking for its first state title in girls soccer, just as Hamilton was last year.

"We played to our forte," Hamilton coach Mark Eggleston said. "We're fast, we like to possess it and keep teams off balance. It took us a little bit to settle down, but our strength is we're one of the fastest teams around."

Miniefield, one of four freshmen who start for Hamilton, scored her goal by getting past a defender and punching home the shot.. As she worked around her defender, the ball seemed to take a weird spin. It threw timing off for the Pioneers defender and keeper and Miniefield's shot found the net.

Prior to that Pinnacle had put been supplying the heat..

"We had chances, had a great start," Pinnacle coach Kacey Bingham said. "One with the keeper out and the shot went over and another their keeper deflected. We got some good looks,but you have to put your chances away."

Hamilton, with the starting lineup it liks most  on the field for the fourth straight game, came out in the second half intent on widening their lead. They had two great chances about 30 seconds apart in the first five minutes. One was repelled on a great save by freshman keeper J.J. Tompkins. The other Tompkins caught at eye level. Tompkins made a couple more nice stops as the half progressed. But Pinnacle  wasn't able to generate the tying goal while Tompkins ws doing her best  to keep it a one-goal game.

"We put her in in the second half  to see how she would do," Bingham said. "Our keepers have different strengths. I was very impressed with what I saw (from Tompkins)."

Eggleston praised his team for its continued ability to beat challenges of teams, who all have their eye on beating a state champ.

"Everyone has been coming for the state champs," Eggleston said, "We've gone through some changes this season. I'm new, we have new players and a different system. We've had to work through all that. It's good timing that we have the lineup we hoped to have on the field togethe now. I don't think we've played our best soccer yet, but we are still playing."

Pinnacle played without one of its standouts -- sophomore forward Jorian Baucom. Baucom received two yellow cards and was ejected in the Pioneers quarterfinal win over Desert Vista. An ejection requires a player to sit out the next game. That was Thursday's semifinal.