Owatonna Girls Soccer Sparkles on Senior Day

The Owatonna High School girls soccer club celebrated Senior Day with a dominating 9-1 win over Austin Saturday at the Lincoln Soccer Complex. Junior Hillary Haarstad netted a hat trick. Sophomore Ezra Oien scored twice. Seniors Anna Herzog, Sydney Hunst, and Lily Sampson each netted one.

The defending Big Nine Conference champion Huskies bounced back from a 6-1 loss at current conference leader Mankato East to improve to 3-2 on the season. Coach Nate Gendron said, through the @OHSGirlsSoccer_ Twitter page, "Amazing win today for our Senior Day, 9-1...Outstanding work put in today! I'm so proud!"

On Saturday's, AM 1390 KRFO Coaches Show, Gendron said he was pleased with how hard the team played in the late stages of the recent loss in Mankato, "We had good communication out on the field...I was really proud of them, that they never gave up. It's tough in those situations where you know you're down...Our girls always pushed to the last whistle and they always wanted to get another scoring opportunity."

The Huskies play at Faribault Tuesday, September 15 with coverage planned for Kat Kountry 105 and on the free downloadable Kat Kountry 105 app. Match time is 7 pm with the pregame at 6:50 pm. The Huskies will be back home Friday night for a 7 pm kick off against Albert Lea at the Lincoln Complex.

Owatonna's seniors include Lauren Borgerding, Emma Dahnert, Hailey Fox, Anna Herzog, Sydney Hunst, Libby Janka, Sarah Kingland, Greta Korbel, and Lily Sampson, plus managers Don Nelson and Ashton Jensen.

Scoring list for the Huskies (unofficial)

• Ezra Oien, 4 goals
• Hillary Haarstad, 4 goals
• Ari Shornock, 3 goals
• Abby Vetsch, 1 goal
• Syd Hunst, 1 goal
• Lily Sampson, 1 goal

The Owatonna boys lost on Saturday at Austin 4-1. The Huskies did a good job early of getting into passing lanes and prevented the three-time defending Big Nine champs for getting quality chances. Austin broke through on a free kick that was deflected into the net about 13 minutes into the match.

The Packers added a goal about 15 minutes later on a ball that was saved by goal keeper Nils Gantert but apparently went in off his teammate. Fletcher Schulz put the Huskies on the board on a penalty kick with under eight minutes to go to halftime.

Austin's Henry Tolbert scored a pair of goals seven minutes apart early in the second half to create the final score of 4-1. Owatonna hosts Faribault Tuesday and plays at Albert Lea Friday, September 18. The Friday night match is scheduled to be on Kat Kountry 105 FM.