After a rocky 3-4 start to its season, the Owatonna girls soccer team had a remarkable stretch of games to end their regular season, as they were named Co-Big 9 Conference champions.
The Huskies earned the number three seed in Section 1AAA, which had them face off against No. 6 seed Farmington on Tuesday night. After a scoreless first half from both teams, the Huskies scored two goals in the second half in the home matchup to win against the Tigers 2-1, advancing to the section semifinals.
The Huskies ended the regular season with a 11-4-2 record, and had a 9-1-1 record against Big 9 Conference opponents. The only conference loss they suffered was against the Winona Winhawks, as they lost to them 1-0 on Tuesday, Sep. 10.
That ended up being the last time the Huskies lost during the season, as they went 8-0-2 to end the season. The Winhawks also had a conference record of 9-1-1, as they along with the Huskies were named the Co-Big 9 champions of in the 2024 season. This is the Huskies’ first conference championship since 2019 when they shared it with Mankato West and Rochester Century.
The Huskies were officially conference champions at the end of last week after their road win against Rochester mayo on Thursday night. But their celebrations did not last long as they knew they had a tough road ahead of them in the section playoffs.
Their first game in the playoffs saw them face off against Farmington. The two teams played each other in the regular season with the game ending in a 0-0 draw at Farmington. The Section 1AAA quarterfinals matchup was also a rematch of the 2021 section quarterfinals game where Farmington won over Owatonna 2-0.
The game started out very similar to the regular season matchup between the two teams, as they went into halftime tied with no score. The Huskies had the slight advantage in shots taken, as they had four compared to the Tigers’ three.
The Huskies had a couple chances to score in the first period, including a shot by senior Averi Vetsch’s with just under 10 minutes remaining hitting the crossbar.
The Huskies came through in the second period though, as they got on the board 11 minutes into the second period with a goal by Vetsch, assisted by junior Gabrielle Simon.
The Huskies scored once more six minutes later with an unassisted goal by Abigail Shornock. The shot came off of a corner kick by senior Addison Ahrens with both teams kicking the ball back and forth before Shornock was able to put it in the goal for a score.
The Tigers ended up scoring a goal of their own with nine minutes left in regulation, as they scored off of a penalty shot.
With the Huskies ahead of Farmington 2-1, they were aggressive in the final minutes, with them being at the Tigers’ side of the field for the majority of the remainder of the game. This led to Farmington being unable to score and the Huskies winning 2-1.
The win marks the first playoff victory for Owatonna in two years, as their last playoff win was in 2022 in the quarterfinals against Rochester Century. They ended up losing to Lakeville North in the section semifinals against Lakeville North.
This time the Huskies will play against Lakeville South. The two teams did not play each other in the regular season, with the last matchup between the two team being in 2020 in the Section 1 AA Championship game, where Lakeville South won 4-1.
Owatonna will go on the road on Thursday to take on the Cougars, as the Huskies are the three seed in the Section 1AAA tournament while the Cougars are the number two seed. The game will start at 7:00 p.m.
Local News
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