The Central Cyclones scored two second-half goals to keep their season alive on Thursday during the girls' quarterfinal in the Moose Jaw High School Soccer League.

Central pulled off a 2-1 win over the Peacock Tornadoes to advance into Saturday's semifinals.

"They had a really good first half, we needed to pick up the intensity and we did that," said Central grade 11 Kirstie Johnstone. "Both teams played good games."

Central put a lot of pressure on Peacock throughout the game, but they couldn’t break through in the first half. 

Eden Gusa scored for the Tornadoes in the first half to give them a lead heading into halftime.

The Cyclones finally broke through in the second half when Johnstone charged up and buried a rebound to tie the game at 1-1. Just a few minutes later, Central moved in front for the first time in the game when Katherine MacDonald score the eventual game-winning goal.

Johnstone was pumped up after scoring the goal, "It was really exciting, usually I’m on defence, but we had to get our momentum going and we went and got it done," she said.

"Once we settled down and figured out that the game was on the line, we got it together, we stepped it up."

The Tornadoes, who were winless in the regular season, put together a strong effort against the Cyclones, one that Captain Cassie Lamb said that they can be proud of.

"We were in good spirits (during the first half) and that helped us out, but they came through in the second half, it was a good game though," said Peacock captain Cassie Lamb.

"We did amazing, we have a lot of new players that have never played before and they have done so well, so we're proud of them."

Central will now advance into Saturday’s semifinal where they will take on the first place Weyburn Eagles at 2:45 p.m. at Sunningdale Field. The other girls’ semifinal has the Vanier Spirits facing the 11-time defending league champion Swift Current Ardens at 10:30 a.m.

The boys league also opened its playoffs on Thursday with the Weyburn Eagles pulling out a 5-4 win over the Vanier Vikings in the quarterfinal.

The Eagles will now square off with Swift Current at 2:45 p.m. on Saturday at Smith Field in the semifinals. The early semifinal game will see the Central Cyclones battle the Peacock Tornadoes at 10:30 a.m.

The finals for both leagues are on Tuesday.