ABOVE: Mollie Leiding challenges a defender for ball control against Stewartville in Fairmont at Jeffery Kot Fields on Thursday.

FAIRMONT- The Fairmont girls soccer team opened the season with an emphatic win over Stewartville on Thursday. The high pressure fast paced offense proved too much for their opponent to handle in the season opener.

Grace Simpson opened up the scoring for Fairmont, followed by three goals by Kennedy Becker in the first half with Fairmont only allowing one for their opposition, closing out the first half with a score of 4-1.

“On the back end with our defenders who were really fast and taking their breaks out of play,” Fairmont girls soccer head coach Matt Nielsen said. “Obviously, Kennedy Becker, Mataya Weber, Cadence Leiding, Kenzie Gerhardt, all those forwards have speed. And so we were putting a tremendous amount of forward pressure on.”

The scoring didn’t stop there with a Mollie Leiding goal off of a set piece to open the scoring in the second half. Becker and Cadence Leiding put away two more goals for Fairmont to bring the score to 7-1. The Cardinals only gave up one goal in the second half before the final whistle securing the 7-2 victory in their season opener.

“We were talking a lot. It’s, you know, again, that’s kind of the root of where we are is we keep a tight defensive line,” Nielsen said. “In the first half, they were challenging our line a little bit more. Second half, they didn’t so much.”

The overwhelming pressure combined with a solid defensive performance got the season off to the right start. They now move on to their next opponent on Saturday at 1 p.m. at Jeffrey Kot Fields in Fairmont against Albert Lea.