Tigers tear apart competition at own invite

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, September 20, 2005

ALBERT LEA &045; Consider the numbers for a moment: 20 unanswered goals, 59 shots on goal, seven opposing shots on goal, 12 corner kicks and no opposing corner kicks.

One-sided doesn’t even begin to cover what happened in back-to-back Saturday games.

The Albert Lea girls’ soccer team decimated its competition, winning the Albert Lea Invitational and improving its record to 6-3-0 overall and 5-1-0 in the Big Nine.

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Only Mayo, John Marshall and Winona haven’t faced the Tigers this season.

The Mankato East Cougars, a conference and section foe, was first to fall, 9-0.

Whitney Wilson opened the scoring with the winning goal in the seventh minute.

Sixty eight seconds later, Laura Hillman iced the insurance goal.

It only took six minutes for Wilson to put in her second goal of the morning.

On a corner kick, Wilson sent it short to Leah Walters who dished it back to Wilson for the shot.

Six minutes later, Wilson picked up her hat trick for the game on a Jenna Christensen feed.

Amanda Arends and Kendra Olchefske combined at the 26th minute to close out the scoring in

the first half.

Coming up from the keeper position for a throw in, Olchefske hurled the ball to Arends at the back post for the head in.

It only took 48 seconds of the second half for Arends to pick up her second goal on a pass from her sister Abbey.

Less than six minutes later, Abbey Arends got her first goal of the day.

At the 69th minute, the Tigers executed the prettiest play of the day.

On a direct kick, two Tigers were next to the ball as another jumped over it.

The distracted Cougars were focused on a play they thought was coming towards them, but one of the Tigers kicked it sideways to Jackie Rehmke, who punched it just under the bar.

Senior Anna Sigurdson closed out the scoring at the 73rd minute by forcing a rebounded corner kick between the keeper and the post.

&uot;Two plays today stick out in my mind as favorites,&uot; said Albert Lea head coach Rick Barnhill.

&uot;Jaclyn’s free kick couldn’t have been better executed and was great fun to watch.

The other was Amanda nicking in Kendra’s throw.

Neither one is a trick play, per se, but both are unexpected and successful when done well.&uot;

The surprise of the day was Fairmont’s shootout win over the Worthington Trojans.

This was Fairmont’s first trip to the invitational and their victory earned them a trip to the stadium to face the Tigers.

It took Hillman just over three minutes minutes to open the scoring on an assist from Wilson.

Two minutes later, Wilson and Walters successfully repeated their corner kick maneuver.

Walters picked up her first goal at the 11th minute.

For the next 39 minutes, the Tigers locked the game down.

At the 50th minute, Wilson and Walters used their corner kick trick one last time and opened the floodgates.

The next score came 79 seconds later when Abbey Arends buried her second goal of the day.

At the 56th minute, Wilson and Walters combined again when Wilson banged a Walters pass into the near post and had it ricochet in.

The 59th minute saw Hillman putting up her third and final goal of the day.

The 64th minute saw Brittni Lair’s first goal off an Elyce Rehmke pass and she followed it up four minutes later, burying the rebound of a Jackie Rehmke shot.

Christensen picked up her first goal at the 72nd minute on a Sophie Miller assist.

With less than five minutes left, Sigurdson closed the scoring for the second game on a Samantha Overgaard assist to make it 11-0.

During the awards ceremony, five Tigers were among 12 players given special recognition by the participating coaches, and named to an all-tournament team.

Representing Albert Lea were: Wilson, Walters, Olchefske, Hillman and Amanda Arends.