The Packers shook off their recent scoring struggles early as they ended a two-year drought of playoff wins when they topped No. 9 seeded Willmar (4-9-2 overall) in the first round of the Section 2A girls soccer playoffs in Art Hass Stadium Tuesday.

No. 8 seeded Austin (5-11 overall) had scored just one goal in its past five games, and it doubled that total in the first eight minutes of its 4-1 win.

Sophomore Hannah Voogd put Austin on the board with a score that was just over two minutes into the game and junior Carley Grunewald scored on a breakaway six minutes after the initial score.

“There’s been a couple of times were other teams have scored on us early and it’s been hard to come back. I think the girls played a perfect game and that’s what we wanted,” Austin head coach Enrique Camarena-Corzo said. “We knew that there was no tomorrow. We’ve been improving little by little (all year) and today was the result.”

Austin’s defense controlled the game over the last 30 minutes of the first half and the Packers went back on the offensive in the second half. After Nicole Lipari had a shot stopped on a diving save, freshman Carolyn Hackel came up with her first goal of the season in the 50th minute when she rebounded her own miss with a left-footed chip that sailed into the back of the net.

“I just happened to be in the right place in the right time. I shot it and the ball came right back to me,” she said. “Getting those early goals really helped us get motivated and it gave us the opportunity to play more of a defensive game, where if we held them off the rest of the game, then we knew we had it in the bag.”

Willmar’s Rachel Hardy scored on an indirect kick in the 61st minute and Grunewald scored her second goal of the game on a breakaway that came off a pass from Lipari in the 74th minute.

Austin will advance to play at top-seeded Albert Lea (10-4-1 overall) Saturday at 6 p.m. The Tigers beat the Packers 3-0 during the regular season.

“They’re a pretty good team, but the girls have worked for it and we have a couple of days to practice and work,” Camarena-Corzo said. “We’re ready for it and I think we’re ready to make history.”

The Austin girls soccer team eclipsed its win total from the last two seasons combined this season and winning a playoff contest is an even bigger boost to their confidence.

“Nobody believed in the Austin girls soccer program until we started getting some wins early this year,” Hackel said. “Then people started saying we had the potential to make it further. Making it past the first round is huge for all of us and it means a lot.”