The Woodbury girls soccer is hitting its stride at the right time. The Royals won 10 of their final 11 regular season games.

Senior goalie Sam Mattes and junior forward Clara Fedunok spearheaded the late-season surge. Fedunok orchestrates the offense, while Mattes directs the defense en route to an 11-2-1 campaign.

Mattes said the Royals set a goal in the buildup to the season of making the state tournament. That journey kicks into overdrive Wednesday, when second-seeded Woodbury hosts seventh-seeded Tartan in the Class 3A, Section 4 quarterfinals.

“This team definitely has that ability. For us, it’s staying focused,” Mattes said. “We make it a big thing about getting our school work done, separating school and soccer when we need to. So, having that driving force, focusing on one game at a time.”

Fedunok, a Marquette commit, has exhibited her technical ability and leadership throughout the 2025 season. Woodbury girls soccer coach Pat Malicki said her relentless work ethic and skill on the ball are integral to the Royals’ attack.

Undated courtesy photo of Woodbury junior forward Clara Fedunok, who fires a shot for the Royals during the 2025 season. (Courtesy of Rich Peterson)

“She’s gonna beat players one v. one, and she’ll get to the goal and she can finish with both left foot and right foot,” Malicki said. “When she gets marked, she’s able to get (to the) endline and get service across. She’s basically the quarterback of our attack.”

Fedunok said her coach’s confidence in her is an added motivator, which pushes her to perform. She leads Woodbury with seven goals and has tallied five assists on the season.

Fedunok said her gritty mentality and motor have led to her offensive production.

“I’m sort of an aggressive player, I like getting the ball,” Fedunok said. “I like winning the ball back, and I think that my speed definitely helps.”

The Royals have also sported one of the best defenses in the state. Woodbury has kept nine clean sheets in 14 games played.

Mattes has made 61 saves this season while only allowing nine goals, posting a 0.69 goals against average.

Malicki said Mattes is a student of the game, which allows her to see opponent’s buildup and instruct her back line on how to align.

“Over the last couple of years, her communication has improved so much. So she’s organizing our back line,” Malicki said. “So, right there is what’s helping her as it’s preventing a lot of shots and finishes.”

Mattes said her communication on the pitch extends beyond her defense, even involving midfielders and forwards to keep the entire team in sync.

Woodbury has outscored its opponents 36-9 this season. Mattes said limiting chances requires everyone to understand their role and assist teammates through communication. Mattes said a large part of the credit for her team’s strong defensive record is thanks to her back line and the chemistry the team has developed.

“I scan [the field] to make sure they know what they’re doing because if we have someone who isn’t as familiar with the position, the defenders and I are good at helping them out with that,” Mattes said. “But it’s really reliability and trust.”

Related Articles

Forest Lake schools presses state leaders to follow federal order on trans athletes

Western Minnesota school district keeps ‘Braves’ mascot with tribe’s OK

High school football: Washburn shuts down Highland Park

Prep football: Mahtomedi runs roughshod over Tartan

Prep football: Forest Lake rolls East Ridge

October’s supermoon — a phenomenon when the moon is closest to Earth, making it appear larger and brighter — is the first of three this year. The subtle difference can be observed without special equipment if skies are clear.

This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors:

The Harvest Supermoon rises, in London, Monday, Oct. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
The Harvest Supermoon rises behind spires of the Duomo gothic cathedral, in Milan, Monday, Oct. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
A Southwest Airlines plane appears between the Harvest Supermoon and a statue of Jesus Christ atop Iglesia Luterana Santa Maria de Guadalupe as it takes off from Dallas Love Field Airport, Monday, Oct. 6, 2025, in Irving, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
The Harvest Supermoon rises behind Tower Bridge, Monday, Oct. 6, 2025, in London. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
The Harvest Supermoon rises as a red double-decker bus drives past on Tower Bridge, Monday, Oct. 6, 2025, in London. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
The Harvest Supermoon rises behind the cross of ‘Metamorphosis Sotiros’ Christian Orthodox Church at Anthoupolis outskirts of capital Nicosia, Cyprus, on Monday, Oct, 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)
The full Harvest Moon rises behind a cloud in the sky in Hadera, Israel, Monday, Oct. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
A person photographs the Harvest Supermoon as it rises behind Tower Bridge, Monday, Oct. 6, 2025, in London. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
The Harvest Supermoon descends behind the Bay Bridge as seen from Alameda, Calif., Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
The Harvest Supermoon sets in the clouds behind the city landmark, a weather vane in the form of an angel fixed atop a spire of the Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg, Russia, early Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)
The Harvest Supermoon rises over the Thien Tau Temple in Chinatown Los Angeles Monday, Oct. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
The Harvest Moon rises over Los Angeles, Monday, Oct. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Paula Andalo, KFF Health News

About 1,500 federally funded health centers that serve millions of low-income people face significant financial challenges, their leaders say, as the government shutdown compounds other cuts to their revenue.

Related Articles

Bipartisan US governors’ group faces division over Trump’s deployment of troops to states

Closed, canceled and turned away: Shutdown leaves tourists in limbo

Trump administration threatens no back pay for federal workers in shutdown

UN refugee agency chief suggests that US deportation practices violate the law

AI will soon have a say in approving or denying Medicare treatments

Some of these community health centers may have to cut medical and administrative staff or reduce services. Some could eventually close. The result, their advocates warn, may be added pressure on already crowded hospital emergency rooms.

“This is the worst time in all the years I have been working in health care,” said Jim Mangia, president and CEO of St. John’s Community Health, a network of 28 clinics that serves more than 144,000 patients in Los Angeles, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties in California. “We are facing federal cuts and extreme state cuts that will impact services.”

St. John’s and other federally qualified health centers offer primary care and a wide range of other services free of charge or on a sliding fee scale. Nationwide, they see nearly 34 million patients in the country’s most underserved areas.

The federal funds come through two primary routes, both of which face challenges: grants paid in part through the federal Community Health Center Fund and reimbursements for patients’ care through programs like Medicaid, which provides health insurance for low-income people and people with disabilities. Medicaid is jointly funded by states and the federal government.

Congress has approved the grant money in dribs and drabs recently. In March, lawmakers extended the funds until Sept. 30. That money expired after the Republican-controlled Congress did not pass a funding law, leading to a government shutdown.

Advocates say the health centers need long-term funding to help them plan with more certainty, ideally through a multiyear fund.

The centers received $4.4 billion in grants in early 2024. The National Association of Community Health Centers is advocating for at least $5.8 billion in grants annually for two years to keep the centers fully functional.

The health center safety net faces “multiple layers of challenges,” said Vacheria Keys, vice president of policy and regulatory affairs for the association.

The new spending law that Republicans call the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” will significantly cut Medicaid, raising the second set of threats for health centers.

Medicaid accounted for 43% of the $46.7 billion in health center revenue in 2023.

Advocates said lower Medicaid payments will exacerbate a gap between funding and operational costs.

Funding for workforce programs also is needed to support the delivery of health care services as centers struggle to hire and retain workers, said Feygele Jacobs, director of the Geiger Gibson Program in Community Health at George Washington University.

The first clinics of this type opened in places such as Massachusetts in the 1960s. Congress typically has funded them with bipartisan support, with minor fluctuations.

The struggle this year began when the Trump administration froze domestic aid through a January memo, which prevented some centers from receiving already approved grant money. As a consequence, some health centers in states such as Virginia closed or merged operations.

The upcoming cuts also are set to arrive at a time when patients will face new demands and challenges. The Medicaid changes in President Donald Trump’s tax-and-spending law include requirements for Medicaid enrollees to report their work or other service hours to keep their benefits.

Meanwhile, more generous tax credits the Biden administration and Congress provided consumers to help pay for Affordable Care Act health insurance are set to expire at the end of the year. Some consumers’ costs will spike if Congress doesn’t renew them.

One reason the government shut down is that Democrats want to extend the tax credits, which protect consumers from higher insurance costs. The Republican funding bill did not include an extension; Republican congressional leaders say the issue should be addressed separately.

Consumers “will need more support than ever,” said Jacobs, noting that Medicaid cuts and the expiration of the higher tax credits will both “potentially throw people out of coverage.”

Ninety percent of the centers’ patients have incomes that are twice the federal poverty level or less, and 40% are Hispanic.

“We are also receiving 300 calls per day from patients concerned about their coverage,” said Mangia, from St. John’s.

Republicans are not directly targeting the centers, although they supported the Medicaid cuts that will affect the clinics’ finances. Many Republicans say Medicaid spending has ballooned and that reducing the program’s growth will make it more sustainable.

State and Local Support

While advocating for longer-term federal funding, the centers also are looking to their community and local governments for backing.

Some states already took action while finalizing their annual budgets. Connecticut, Minnesota, Illinois, and Massachusetts allocated money for centers. Maryland, Oregon, and Wisconsin also provided support for the health centers.

The question is how long the money will last.

While some states boosted their support of the centers, others are going in the opposite direction. Anticipating the impact of Medicaid cuts, states such as California made their own cuts to the program.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office, the federal Department of Health and Human Services, and the federal Health Resources and Services Administration did not respond to requests for comment.

In Los Angeles, Mangia said, one potential solution is to work with partners at the county level, noting that L.A. County has about 10 million residents.

“We can tax ourselves to increase funding for health care services,” he said.

Health center leaders are building a coalition that “hopefully” will include the main stakeholders in the county’s health care system — community health centers, clinics, hospitals, doctors, health plans, unions — to begin the process to fill out a ballot petition, Mangia said. The goal: Put the question about taxes for health centers on the ballot and let voters decide.

“We are learning that the federal government and the state government are not reliable when it comes to continuing to fund health care,” Mangia said.

(KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs of KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling and journalism.)

©2025 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Asked about a long-proposed protected bike trail along Summit Avenue, state Rep. Kaohly Her told a wall-to-wall audience that she was not ready to call for its cancellation, but she was skeptical of the city-driven process that led to its greenlighting. Why would such a major bicycle infrastructure project roll out on the city’s wealthiest street while poorer areas like the East Side go without?

“The question being asked is flawed because you’re asking me to make a decision on planning from a group of people who handled it very poorly,” said Her, during a forum Monday evening that drew the five candidates for St. Paul mayor to Highland Park.

“Is it because we don’t care about Black and brown people who need their infrastructure updated? … Why was it designated as a regional trail? Who designated it? Who wanted it?” said Her, who said city staff had given her only vague answers about planning that had pit cyclists against homeowners. “I will look at the project and reevaluate it.”

Asked by forum moderator Tane Danger if she at least agreed with the mayor’s claim that Summit Avenue needs a full reconstruction no matter what amenities are added, Her elicited a mix of widespread laughter and clapping with her response: “All of our streets in St. Paul need to be redone.”

She was immediately met with a wry laugh and under-his-breath condemnation — “That’s an (expletive) answer” — from fellow mayoral candidate Adam Dullinger, a licensed professional engineer who lives by the Grand Round bike path along Wheelock Parkway.

Pressed by Her and the moderator, Dullinger soon apologized but emphasized that in order to provide safe transportation to destinations across the city, bike trails need to be connected in a complete network, and Summit Avenue is an important and underdeveloped east-west corridor linking downtown to points west.

“Her whole point is to dismiss Summit Avenue as this equity thing,” said Dullinger, noting select parts of the East Side have superior bike infrastructure to areas such as Summit Hill and Snelling Avenue. “We need to build bicycle infrastructure everywhere in this city, and Summit Avenue is a fantastic place to do it. It’s very central.”

Hilborn, Chen opposed

Dullinger said he bikes daily across the city and as far west as Plymouth but had to drive to the mayoral forum from his North End home because there was no safe route to or down Snelling Avenue. In contrast, he said, “if you look at the Grand Round, it goes through the East Side, and that’s what gives me the opportunity to go to the grocery store on a bike.”

The long-planned Summit Avenue project, which has been fought in court by avenue homeowners and other opponents, has drawn dueling estimates of tree impacts, costs and other details, with critics claiming it will remove more trees than a more straightforward road reconstruction. Many cyclists see the avenue — which is believed to host the longest stretch of Victorian mansions in the country — as a key east-west corridor in an underdeveloped citywide bicycle network short on direct, cross-town bike routes.

Asked to explain in simple yes or no terms whether they supported the protected five-mile bike trail along one of the city’s most celebrated streets, the five candidates for St. Paul mayor offered sharply distinct answers during one of their latest candidate forums, which was organized by the Highland District Council, FairVote Minnesota, Danger Boat Productions and others at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church on Snelling Avenue.

A recording is available online on the St. Paul Neighborhood Network’s YouTube channel.

The prospect of a five-mile bike trail running mostly at sidewalk level along Summit Avenue struck mayoral candidates Yan Chen and Mike Hilborn as a definitive non-starter.

“It’s just the wrong priority for the wrong time,” said Chen, a biophysicist who has called for the city to control spending by refocusing on core needs. “The bicycle plan is not tied into our transit plan. … There’s a bus plan. There’s a housing plan. Everything needs to be tied together.”

Chen said Summit Avenue’s existing bike lanes could be touched up or modified here and there. Otherwise, “there are so many other infrastructure projects we can deal with,” she said.

Hilborn, who owns a power washing and snow plowing company, said Grand Avenue needs more attention and repair. “Summit Avenue has a bike lane, both directions,” he said. “Drive down it, and it’s one of the smoother streets in St. Paul. … If we have a tax problem, a crime problem and a homelessness problem, I don’t think we need to try to fix something where we already have a bike lane there already.”

Mayor, Dullinger both on board

St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter and Dullinger both said they were fully on board with the Summit Avenue trail.

“Life has just gotten more expensive,” Carter said. “Being able to commute in this city … without the cost of car ownership is absolutely essential for our future. … The tradition that I grew up in, running to the DMV to get your driver’s license as soon as possible, isn’t what our teenagers are up to today.”

“We have to reconstruct Summit,” Carter added. “Taft was the president the last time we reconstructed Summit. And it’s not just about the pavement. It’s about the water main underneath.”

Her said the argument that Summit Avenue needs a sidewalk-level bike trail because its underground utilities are old struck her as a tacked-on rationalization after initial arguments hit opposition. “Marshall is the better connector between Minneapolis and downtown, and … they have old infrastructure,” she said.

Dullinger reiterated that a solid east-west and north-south bike path network needs to be accessible to families “for our kids, for affordability, for everyone to have freedom of movement throughout our city.”

“Right now it feels like kids are just isolated in their homes, and they have to be chauffeured to any place they want to go and part of that is just because it’s dangerous,” he said. “It’s important to have that be a safe infrastructure across the city.”

Nov. 4 election

The Nov. 4 election will be decided by ranked-choice ballot, allowing voters to rank all the candidates in order of preference for what will be a three-year term as a result of the city’s transition to even-year elections.

Another mayoral forum was scheduled Tuesday night by the Coalition of Asian American Leaders. More information is online at facebook.com/CAALMinnesota.

Related Articles

Cole Hanson: Weak enforcement, scattered resources can put recourse out of reach for St. Paul renters

Dillon Donnelly: Why is St. Paul building rec centers while families can’t afford rent?

As some big names sit out St. Paul mayor’s race, others ponder city’s challenges

St. Paul: Highland District Council, other groups to host mayoral forum

DOJ sues Minnesota, St. Paul, Minneapolis, Hennepin County over immigration enforcement