MILWAUKEE - There was just one word for the weather conditions Friday during the St. Catherine's High School boys soccer team's Division 3 semifinal match at the WIAA State Tournament: Ugly.

There was just one word for the Angels' performance in those awful conditions: Exceptional.

St. Catherine's took advantage of a brisk southerly wind and scored both of its goals in the second half of a 2-0 state semifinal victory over Winnebago Lutheran of Fond du Lac at Uihlein Soccer Park.

The Angels (19-5) will face Kohler (23-4-2), a 5-0 winner over McDonell Central/Regis, in today's 10 a.m. Division 3 championship match at Uihlein. It will be the first time the Angels have played in a WIAA championship match since 2001, when the tournament was played in Madison and they were runners-up to Green Bay Notre Dame in Division 2.

Friday's match was played in a moderate rain with winds blowing hard enough to make the flags around the park stand straight out. The center of the field was more mud than grass.

Senior midfielder Erik Berkowitz was involved in both goals for the Angels, assisting on sophomore midfielder Ryan Namowicz's goal and scoring himself on a 30-yard direct free kick.

The first goal came at 48:15 after a textbook through ball by Berkowitz between two Vikings defenders. Namowicz ran on to the ball and blasted a shot inside the near post that went off the left hand of Lutheran goalkeeper Sean Augustyn and into the net.

"I saw two defenders that created a gap and Ryan Namowicz was running behind them," Berkowitz said. "I played it right through and he put it right in."

Helping on the goal was a bit of advice from the Angels coaching staff.

"We were talking about those kinds of plays in our practice, because we heard through balls were one of their weaknesses," Namowicz said. "We set it up perfectly - I just played through, ran onto it and scored."

Just over 11 minutes later, Berkowitz took a direct free kick following a hard foul by the Vikings, driving the ball around the wall and past Augustyn about knee-high.

"Assistant coach Ricardo Rico was telling me that their 'keeper's footwork was not correct," Berkowitz said. "So he said if I hit it low and hard it will go right in."

The defense also played its part. Even though Lutheran had the wind advantage in the first half, the Angels defense kept most of the pressure off junior goalkeeper Nick Moes. He made five saves, including three acrobatic stops that prevented almost certain Vikings goals.

The first came in the first half, when Moes dove to stop a ball and then fell on it. The second came in the 47th minute, where Moes had to leap up and dive to his right. In the 74th minute, Lutheran's Tommy Knuth hit a shot off a corner kick and Moes leapt to deflect the ball up and off the crossbar. The ball landed in front of the goal, but the Vikings hit the rebound wide left.

"Luckily I got a hand out and tipped it off the bar," Moes said. "Our defense was playing amazing for the most part. Not many shots got through."

St. Catherine's coach Ben Lake said the conditions didn't distract his team from staying with its game plan.

"I think our focus in these conditions was keeping the ball low, playing to our feet and trying to get our spacing," Lake said. "I think our main focus was to play the way we play and play better at it."

The Angels won despite losing another player. Already without three starters because of injuries, Lake said senior starting center midfielder Sergio Casillas was declared ineligible because of grades.