WILLMAR — The Willmar girls soccer team completed the season sweep on Fergus Falls. Hosting the Otters for a Central Lakes Conference match on Saturday, the Cardinals notched a 3-0 victory at the Willmar Civic Center turf fields. Willmar is 2-5-1 on the season, including a 2-3-1 record in the CLC.
Both of the Cardinals’ wins are against Fergus Falls. They won the previous matchup 3-2 on Sept. 5 in Fergus Falls.
“After already playing Fergus this year, we had a good game plan going into today and knew how we needed to perform to be successful,” said Willmar head coach Madeline Wertish. “The girls executed our plan very well. We needed to play quickly, play to feet and let the ball do the work.
We did just that. “So many girls stepped up today, which resulted in a really great team performance.” A pair of Cardinals scored their first goals of the season in the first half.
Senior Keianna Hillenbrand scored the game’s first goal in the second minute. In the 29th minute, senior Jackie Lopez Maldonado received a cross from Telilie Lange and buried the ball in the back of the net for the score. “It was also her first goal after recovering from a season-ending injury last year,” Wertish said of Lopez Maldonado’s score.
Keeping up possession in the second half, Lange weaved through the Otters’ defense and made it a 3-0 game with a goal in the 79th minute. Willmar goalkeeper Kianna Eichhorst earned the clean sheet with six saves. It was Eichhorst’s first shuto.