The U-17 Albert Lea girls’ soccer team put together a strong passing attack during the first half of its game with Winona Monday night at Memorial Park in Albert Lea, but when the second half started the Tigers found themselves on their heels in a 4-2 loss.

Albert Lea took a 1-0 lead on a shot from Morgan Stadheim that hit underneath the crossbar and bounced in to give the Tigers the lead early in the match.

Albert Lea continued to attack and had two good scoring chances before the end of the half, but failed to capitalize.

“We did a nice job of passing and moving the ball around,” co-head coach Jeff Miller said. “Towards the end of the first half we started doing a little more of playing over the top. Before the game we talked and we wanted them to play the passing game.”

As the second half opened Winona moved the ball inside the 18-yard box and buried a shot to the inside post to halve the game.

Winona added three more goals, one on a penalty kick, and the Tigers were unable to respond.

Chelsea LeBrun had an opportunity to keep Albert Lea in the game when she drew a penalty kick in the second half, but the Winona goalkeeper made the stop, and gave up a juicy rebound that no Tigers player could put home.

Albert Lea did get a goal in the second half when Mariah Maras fired from 25 yards out to put the game at 4-2 in the final minutes.

The Tigers lost track of trying to execute their game plan.

As Albert Lea tried to play long balls up to its forwards, Winona sat back on defense and built its offense on the counterattack, taking advantage of the Tigers being out of position.

“This team gave us room on the outsides to move the ball around,” Miller said. “In the second half for whatever reason we couldn’t get them to put together the passing again and then move the ball up on the outsides.”