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The Vikings' Megan Pignato scored the only goal of the first half to give the Vikings the lead. But the Wildcats answered with three second half goals to beat the Vikings 3-1 this past Tuesday, September 28 at Chisago Lakes.

There were several scoring opportunities in the first ten minutes of the game. For the Vikings, Alex Madsen missed wide left and Bayley Ertl missed wide right. The Wildcats' Whitney Tinjum also missed wide with a shot. After the misses, both teams settled down and didn't allow many decent scoring opportunities. In the 32nd minute, the Vikings' Kersten Shykes lined up for a goal kick 25 yards from the center of the Wildcat net. She kicked the ball along the ground and it hit traffic about 15 yards from the net. The ball bounced out toward the upper left corner of the Wildcat penalty box. Megan Pignato ripped a shot into the upper right corner of the net to give the Vikings a 1-0 lead.

Just two minutes into the half, Cassie Trandahl nearly scored for the Wildcats. She came in on a breakaway. Viking goalkeeper Alyssa Rupp ran out toward her, forcing Trandahl to shoot quickly. The ball rolled wide left, keeping the score at 1-0 North Branch. But just two minutes later, Trandahl carried the ball along the Viking goal line to the right of the net. As she got close to the net, she passed to Rachel Diers standing out front. From nearly point blank range, Diers knocked the ball into the upper corner of the net to tie the game at 1-1.

In the 48th minute, the Wildcats struck again. Trandahl carried the ball from midfield deep into the Viking zone. She weaved through the Viking defense in the penalty area, carried the ball past Rupp and rolled it into the net to give the Wildcats a 2-1 lead. The Wildcats added an insurance goal in the 69th minute. After a Viking hand ball, Wildcat Hannah Trandahl lined up for a free kick near the right corner. Hannah Trandahl struck a low line drive toward the front of the net. Gwen Vitalis trapped the ball, turned to her left and fired a shot inside the left post to give the Wildcats a 3-1 lead.

Just a minute later, Megan Pignato, a junior, went down with an apparent leg injury on the side of the field away from the benches. After examining her for a couple of minutes, the Viking trainer and an assistant coach, supported Pignato on either side and started to slowly make their way across the field with Pignato putting no weight on her left leg. After they had gone no more than a few feet, Megan Pignato's sophomore sister Molly ran over, hoisted Megan onto her back and ran across the field to her team's bench. After that act of sisterly love, Molly dropped Megan off on the bench and ran back onto the field, and the game resumed.

In the 71st minute, after receiving a nice through ball, Diers took a hard shot from near the top left corner of the box. The shot appeared headed under the crossbar near the middle of the net, but Rupp leaped and tipped the ball just over the crossbar for a big save. The Wildcats controlled the ball the rest of the game, however, and came away with a satisfying 3-1 win.

Viking head coach Doug Larson praised his team's effort. "We outplayed them for much of the game, except for a ten-minute stretch in the second half," he said. "That's the best game we've played in a while. We are really starting to hit our stride." Larson also reported. Larson reported that Megan Pignato was okay, having suffered from a leg cramp. But starting goalkeeper Abby Alm, injured a few games ago, was diagnosed with a concussion and will be out the rest of the season.

With six regular season games and the playoffs left this season, the Wildcats (8-3-1) are already assured of having the best record in Chisago Lakes High School history. And the team has gone through an attitude change over the past couple of years, according to Wildcat head coach Chris Haggerty. "When this team had played North Branch in the past," he said, "whoever scored first usually won. But we've got a different attitude now. The girls stayed fired up even when they were down 1-0 after the first half. We made some adjustments at halftime to get the midfielders to put passes to the forwards behind the defense and were able to generate a lot of scoring opportunities. Rachel Diers ended up having a great game for us. In fact, she has been one of the best players on the field the last three games and has really stepped up her play this season."

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