BRAINERD — Defense wins championships and the Brainerd Warriors just happen to have an experienced backline. They also have a goal of winning a Section 8-3A Championship. Last season, injuries had the Warriors stumbling into the playoffs with a 1-5 record in their last six games.
Then Brainerd, a sixth-seed in the section playoffs, knocked off No. 3 Sartell 2-1 before falling to No. 2-seeded Buffalo 1-0.
The improved play has Brainerd hoping for big things this year. ADVERTISEMENT “Last year, we had a big senior class, but by the end of the season with injuries and some things, we ended up having to play a lot of these girls,” Warriors head coach Grant Gmeinder said. “They got just a ton of experience last year and this was that big core that we relied on toward the end of the year when we made that little playoff run.
We have a lot of veterans coming back. Girls that got to play a lot of minutes as younger players. We’re excited for this group and we talked at the end of last year concerning goals for this year about building on that.
They want to build on that and take the next step off a really positive end to last season.” One reason for the improved play last year and optimism this year is the return of junior goalkeeper Chloe Patrick. In 1,380 minutes last season, she finished with a 1.
51 goals-against average and a .75 save percentage. She was named the team MVP and All-Central Lakes Conference.
Also returning is her backup junior Mia Sypnieski to give Brai.