Albert Lea girls’ soccer head coach Rick Barnhill wanted to test his team to see how it would respond to adversity Tuesday against Stewartville in the Tigers’ home opener. He got a little more than he bargained for with Stewartville.

Albert Lea (2-1) scored a 5-4 win over Stewartville, but it certainly wasn’t as easy as the 4-0 victory the team hung on Stewartville last year and certainly not the result one would expect considering the Tigers were up 2-0 within the first 10 minutes of play.

Barnhill used the game as an opportunity to test the younger players on the varsity lineup and the result wasn’t good as Stewartville rallied to tie the game at 2 with goals that came less than three minutes apart in the first half.

But two senior captains for the Tigers stepped up and helped lead the team to victory.

Two goals by senior captain Mariah Maras in the first half put Albert Lea up by two once again and senior captain Morgan Stadheim scored what proved to be the game-winner eight minutes into the second half.

Stadheim took advantage on a free kick and poor defensive organization when Ariel Christensen, who scored the game’s first two goals, tapped the ball on a free kick to Stadheim, who fired a shot into the back of the net to put the Tigers up 5-3.

“A lot of credit goes to Morgan and Mariah to chipping in and trying to hold it together,” Barnhill said.

Still, Stewartville wasn’t done pestering Albert Lea and came up with a goal in the final five minutes of the match to make it a one-goal game.

The defensive organization wasn’t there for the Tigers as they’ve had to shuffle the lineup because of injuries and illness. Albert Lea played without two-thirds of its starting defense with Sophie Miller still out with an injury and Jenna Bowman, who missed the game because of illness. In sum the Tigers had six players out because of illness or injury and that’s far too many right now for Barnhill.

“I just need to send all our inactive players to a river of healing waters and just kind of separate them,” Barnhill said. “I’ve got to find some able, active bodies that can play.”

Albert Lea had 35 shots in the game to Stewartville’s eight. The difference was all eight were on-goal for Stewartville and half of their shots found the goal.

“Defensively we played really soft and indecisive,” Barnhill said. “Any little chance they got, they finished it.”

The Tigers host Winona Thursday in their conference home opener and it is the “fill the stands” night for the team.