After the 10-minute mark of the first half, the Albert Lea High School boys’ soccer team had some problems finding its rhythm offensively.

Friday, September 17, 1999

After the 10-minute mark of the first half, the Albert Lea High School boys’ soccer team had some problems finding its rhythm offensively.

There was a good reason for it.

The Tigers were playing a man short.

Albert Lea drew a red card penalty 10 minutes into the game and had to go the final 70 minutes with only 10 players. The result was a hard-fought, 2-1 overtime victory over Austin at Hammer Field Thursday night.

&uot;After the red card, we were scrambling around,&uot; said coach Jim Haun. &uot;We couldn’t find a good combination. It really messed up our style of play.&uot;

But the bottom line was a victory, and it kept the Tigers atop the Big Nine at 4-0 while improving their overall record to 4-3.

Paul Olsen scored both Albert Lea goals, the first coming midway through the first half on a penalty kick.

Austin tied it at the 36-minute mark and the Tigers had to settle for a 1-1 halftime tie despite outshooting the Packers 13-4.

The teams played to a scoreless tie in the second half, though the Tigers controlled play for the most part while holding a 15-4 advantage in shots on goal.

The first five-minute overtime period was also scoreless.

The Tigers finally netted the gamewinner 2:10 into the second extra period, when Erik Palomo assisted on Olsen’s second score.

The Tigers outshot Austin 3-0 in overtime.

Haun said Olsen played a very strong game, as did defenders Luke Behrends, Rollie Palomo, Shane Pierick and Jens Levisen.

Billy Jones was the goalkeeper.

&uot;It was tough because we were outnumbered, but we got off enough shots to win the game,&uot; said Haun. &uot;The best thing you can say about it is we won. I’m looking forward to playing them again when we have a full team on the field.&uot;

The Albert Lea junior varsity won 2-1. Scoring for the Tigers were Paul Kelly on a header and Josh Johnson.

The Tigers travel to Rochester John Marshall Saturday, with the JV set for 1 p.m. and the varsity for 3 p.m.