By Bruce Karnick

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The soccer season is in full swing and both Raider teams are working hard to see improvements on the field. Both teams logged a win this week in South St. Paul and the girls picked an extra win up against Chaska in a nailbiter of a game.

BOYS

The Hastings boys first travelled to Park of Cottage Grove to take on the Wolfpack on Tuesday night. Park has been a very good team the last few years advancing in the section, so Hastings had their work cut out for them. It was a rough night for the Raiders, as Park defeated them 40.

The second game of the week the boys travelled to South St. Paul for the Thursday night, 5 p.m. game of Hastings night in South St. Paul. The girls’ game followed. After suffering three straight losses, the Raiders beat the Packers 20.

Saturday, Owatonna came to town and handed the Raiders a big 50 loss to move them to 26 on the season.

The most difficult piece of the season to talk about so far is the goals scored versus allowed. Hastings boys have allowed 25 goals in just eight games. That is 3.125 goals per game. On the flip side, they have only scored eight goals in eight games, but five of those eight came in a 54 win at Tartan last week.

GIRLS

The girls have fared a little better this season sitting at 332 after a 21 run this past week. First up for the girls was a trip to Apple Valley where the girls fell 10.

They then played the second game of Hastings night in South St. Paul. This game seemed more like a rugby match than a soccer match. Penalties were being called all over the pitch, mostly on the Packers. Keegan McVicker had a great night for Hastings, scoring the first goal of the game in the first half, giving Hastings the 10 lead. Half a minute into the second half, McVicker scored again. The Packers made things interesting scoring their first goal a few minutes later, on a weird, quirky goal.

“It was just a weird one,” said Head Coach Paul Armstrong. “It caught our players off guard. We move on.”

The goal squeaked through the legs of keeper Riley Mancl and the look of disbelief backed up the statement of the goal catching everyone off guard. Hastings held on to win 21.

“Keegan having two goals in one game is huge. At this point of the season, we have been playing super well and we have just been missing one piece. To get confidence for the entire team is huge,” added Armstrong.

The defense has been a key aspect to keeping the Raiders in the game and was a key piece to the victory in South St. Paul, Armstrong touched on that.

“We've been working a lot on defensive rotations and anticipating where the ball is going to go, and I felt like we did that tonight when they were trying to break in. Then we just covered each other's backs all night. I’m super proud of the girls. This was a big team win a big character test. We haven't played a physical game like this this season yet. To get through it on the right side of the score line is awesome,” he said.

The final game on Saturday had Chaska in town. The game was tied late in the second when Chaska scored with approximately seven minutes left to go up 21. McVicker had her second straight, twogoal game when she hit the back of the net with a minute remaining in regulation. The game went into a second overtime period and that had almost expired when Elle Magnus passed to Jaylen Hanson on a cross play to win the game 32 in double overtime.

Both teams will host Hill-Murray on Sep 22 with the girls starting at 5 p.m. and the boys scheduled to start at 7 p.m. The boys will then also host Stillwater on Sept. 24 at 7 p.m. On Monday, Sep 26, there will be another soccer double header at Todd Field, this time with the boys having the 5 p.m. game and the girls the 7 p.m. game, this time against Two Rivers. That schedule will repeat two days later on Wednesday when North St. Paul comes to town.

Ella Thorkelson has had a plethora of opportunities to score this season which puts stress on the opposing defense and goalkeepers and helps create scoring chances for the entire

Keeper Chase Harder had a rough night in goal facing multiple shots against a sharp shooting Park team. Hastings fell to Park 4-0 despite Harder’s best effort. Photo by Bruce Karnick

Keegan McVicker had back-to-back two goal games, first against South St. Paul as pictured here and second against Chaska. Photo by Bruce Karnick