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A combination of youth and experience lifted the Wildcats to a 3-0 win over the Vikings Monday, September 12 at Chisago Lakes High School.  Eighth-grader Emma Knabe, freshman Ella Perrault and senior Ruby Dircks scored the goals for the Wildcats, with juniors Addyson Barrett and Madelyn Anderson picking up the assists.

Vikings head coach Josh Kopp said “This was a friendly rivalry game, and both teams played hard.  Chisago, playing the first game on their new turf, came out with a lot of energy and scored 30 seconds into the game.”  With Viking starting keeper Sharis Garcia-Velazquez out due to an injury, the Vikings started Ava Gerten in the net.

When the Wildcats scored to go up 2-0 midway through the second half, Kopp inserted Dylan Lifto into the net and moved Gerten into the attack.  He said, “Ava is a big part of our attack, and we were down 2-0 and needed to think more about scoring to get back in the game.”  The Vikings gave up another goal fairly quickly after the keeper change.  “We got some more scoring chances after that,” said Kopp, “but we were never able to match their aggressiveness.

They were more effective in moving the ball, got it into our end, got more scoring chances and took advantage of that."

BOYS
The Wildcats dominated the game between the two local rivals, shutting out the Vikings 4-0 Monday, September 12 at Chisago Lakes High School. Reagan Her scored twice in the first half for the Wildcats, and they added two more goals in the second half for a comfortable margin of victory.

Her scored his first goal in the seventh minute, converting a corner kick.  In the 25th minute, Her and Aidan Luger has a nice give and go down the middle.  As they got close to the net, Viking goalkeeper Eric Flor beat Her to the ball and knocked it away.  He also punched away the first rebound, but Her converted the second rebound and the Wildcats led 2-0.  In the second half, Spencer Asleson added a goal and Collin Dunleavy scored off a through ball from Luger to make it 4-0.  Jacob Lavalle and Will Hennen also had assists in the game for the Wildcats.

The Wildcats controlled the ball throughout the game, with 90 percent of the play in the Viking end of the field.  The Vikings managed just one shot on net for the game.  “Rivalry games are always tough,” said Wildcat head coach Matt Koehn.  “We have been struggling with our confidence.  Going into this game, the fact that the players all knew each other from playing in the same youth soccer association gave us a big boost of confidence.  The guys were definitely fired up for this game.”  Viking head coach Chad Johnson said “It was a disappointing showing for us.  We will regroup and come back stronger for our next opponent, Big Lake.”

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