It is always nice to play well in front of your family and friends, which is what the Austin girls soccer team did Tuesday night at Wescott Field.

Wednesday, September 29, 1999

It is always nice to play well in front of your family and friends, which is what the Austin girls soccer team did Tuesday night at Wescott Field. The Packers defeated the Mankato West Scarlets 4-1.

Austin scored three times in the first half to take a commanding lead. Jamie Nieland added to the lead with 15 minutes left in the game to make it 4-0. She hammered a drive into the bottom of the cross bar from 20 yards out. The ball then caromed into the net for the goal. It took a couple of minutes before referee Roberto Romo awarded the goal because it was such a bang-bang play.

The only tasks left to accomplish for Austin were to get some experience for the Packers bench and to hold on to the shutout for Austin goal keeper Kellie Peterson.

Austin accomplished the former but were unable to do the latter. West’s Lori Hewitt broke up the shutout by kicking home a ball that was loose in front of the Austin goal with less than five minutes remaining in the contest.

Peterson did a great job in net, thwarting the Scarlets on numerous opportunities. She also had great help from her defense throughout most of the evening. In the first half the Scarlets had a golden opportunity to score with a loose ball only a couple of feet away from the goal line. Packer defender Kasha Kluczny was the first one to the ball and she cleared it away.

"This was a good win for us," Austin coach David Ingalls said. "We were ready to play. We had been outmuscled in the last couple of games on the road, but we played physical tonight.

"We also did a good job on defense. We worked on our defense in practice and tonight it showed with an excellent job of covering."

If you were wondering how Austin scored its first three goals, read on.

The first one was scored by sophomore Laura Nace on a direct free kick from 25 yards out. The West goal keeper got her hands on the ball, but couldn’t stop the powerful shot. Goal two was put in by freshman Emily Lorenzen, who sent one in from close range. Goal three was then scored by sophomore Rebecca Wilson. She scored on a rebound of a hard drive off the left foot of Nieland. It was the first varsity goal for Wilson.

Austin (5-3-2, 4-3-1) is in Winona this Saturday. The varsity takes the field at 1 p.m. This game was originally scheduled for last Saturday.

Austin boys fall 3-0

The Austin boys soccer team fell to 2-7-1 and 2-6 in the Big Nine with a 3-0 loss in Mankato Tuesday.

West, ranked in the top five in the state’s Class A poll, scored two goals in the first half against the Packers.

"We settled down and played good defense in the second half," Coach David Graham said. "They’re a nice team that puts on a lot of pressure."

Austin surrendered an own-goal in the second half when one of its defenseman swept the ball into the Packers’ net.