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CL 1, Forest Lake 1 (OT)

The Wildcats scored in the first half against Forest Lake Monday, September 24 at Forest Lake. A deluge started 10 minutes into the second half. After an hour's delay, the teams came back to play in wet, sloppy, rainy conditions and the Rangers scored the tying goal. Neither team scored in overtime, leaving the final score a 1-1 tie.

After 25 minutes of the first half, a Wildcat played a through ball to Amanda Houle down the left side. Houle passed up a shot and dropped the ball to the thunder-footed Hannah Cadry. Cadry ripped a high, hard shot over the goalie's head and into the back of the net from 25 yards out to put the Wildcats up 1-0. "Hannah's been working hard on learning to strike the ball," said Wildcat head coach Brett Kjos. "We've worked many hours after practice this year on her technique. She's progressed to the point where she can diagnose if she's doing something wrong and knows how to fix it."

The Ranger's tying goal came on a 30 yard free kick. Goalkeeper Lisa Schommer got her hands on the wet ball, but it bounded away right to a Forest Lake striker, who tapped the ball into the net to tie the game at 1-1.

Benilde-St. Margaret's 5, CL 0

The Wildcats played as well as they could against conference opponent Benilde-St. Margaret's, but the third-ranked Red Knights proved to be too powerful. They sent the Wildcats down to a 5-0 defeat Tuesday, September 25 in St. Louis Park.

"The girls played great," said Wildcat head coach Brett Kjos. "They worked well together. A lot of stuff is starting to click. I was pleased with how well the girls played against such a highly-ranked team. And it looked like we ruined their shutout when Amanda Houle took the ball in on a breakaway and scored. About 10 seconds later, the referee said there had been a Wildcat foul on the play and waved off the goal. So we had a goal called back because of this phantom foul."

Irondale 4, Chisago Lakes 1

The Wildcats scored early in the second half to cut the Irondale lead to 2-1, but the Knights added two more goals to defeat the Wildcats 4-1 at Chisago Lakes Thursday, September 27.

Hannah Cadry was, once again, in the middle of a scoring play for the Wildcats. Cadry, the Wildcats' corner kick specialist, lofted a free kick from near the right corner to the near post. Amanda Farrell flicked the ball to the far post. Cassie Trandahl trapped the ball with her chest, dropped it to her right foot and tapped it into the net to get the Wildcats on the board.

The Wildcats kept it close for a while after that, but the Knights scored an insurance goal with 10 minutes remaining to go up 3-1. The Knights scored the game's final goal with just over two minutes to go. "That's been our pattern of late," said Wildcat head coach Brett Kjos. "A number of times recently we've given up goals with two minutes or less left in the half or the game."

St. Louis Park 3, CL 0

Two very late goals helped decide this contest. St. Louis Park scored with under ten seconds left in each half on their way to a 3-0 win over the Wildcats Saturday, September 29 at St. Louis Park.

The Orioles used the strong tailwind to their advantage in the first half. In the 10th minute, an Oriole forward put a nice move on the Wildcat defense and fired a shot toward the far post, just eluding Wildcat goalkeeper Lisa Schommer, to take a 1-0 lead. The Wildcats played the Orioles tough, and it looked like they would go into halftime down by just one goal against a good team. But there was a mad scramble outside the Wildcat net in the waning seconds of the half. The ball squirted out of the pile and into the net with 0.4 (four-tenths) of a second left to give St. Louis Park a 2-0 lead. "Four-tenths of a second - that's like the blink of an eye," said Wildcat head coach Brett Kjos. "We were looking at going into the half down by just a goal, and then all of a sudden we were down by two.

"The first half was tough," continued Kjos. "It was so windy we couldn't even get the ball out of our end. In the second half, we had the wind and the scoring chances, but just couldn't put the finishing touches on anything. In order to get to next level, we need to keep focusing for entire games."

The Wildcats corps of center midfielders has been depleted by injuries recently. Tara Wilson was knocked out temporarily by strep throat, Mariah Stoeckman was injured against Forest Lake, and Katie Peterson has played sparingly as she recovers from her injury. Jamie Koehler has stepped into the breach for the Wildcats to keep things together 'til the Wildcats get healthy. "Jamie's done a great job for us," said Kjos. "She gives us 100 percent when she's out there and is helping to get us through some tough times."

The Wildcats close out the regular season with three road games. They were scheduled to play at Columbia Heights Tuesday, October 2. They'll play at Spring Lake Park tonight, Thursday, October 4, at 7 p.m. Their final regular season game this year will be against Minnehaha Academy at 11 a.m. Saturday, October 6 in Minneapolis. The Section 7A playoffs begin next Thursday, October 11, with seedings, locations, times and opponents yet to be determined.

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