ABOVE: Fairmont's Francesca Martin battles for ball control with Pine Island/Zumbrota-Mazeppa's Caroline Sems in the Section 2A championship game in Austin at Wescott Field Thursday.

AUSTIN – A windy Thursday evening at Wescott Field was the setting for the Section 2A Girls Soccer Championship featuring the No. 1-seed Pine Island/Zumbrota-Mazeppa Wildcats and the No. 2-seed Fairmont Cardinals. With a shot at the state tournament on the line, the Wildcats felled the Cardinals 4-0.

“I was really proud of how they played,” said Fairmont girls soccer head coach Matt Nielsen. “We played into the wind in the first half, we lost the coin toss, and that’s not why we lost the game, but we had to do a tremendous amount of running, especially on the defensive end, because we play such a high line defensive so I felt like … down 2-0 at halftime, I was okay with that, just because of how hard the kids were working.”

The first half had the Cardinals playing into the wind, hindering their ability to get the ball downfield. Despite that, the Cardinal defensive line held their own until the 26th minute when a pass from Wildcats’ Evelyn Skierka found its way past the defense and onto the foot of Elena Hartung, who managed to chip it over a diving Mary Bennett for the opening goal of the night. The combination of wind and a high-intensity offense of the Wildcats continued to give the Cardinals trouble. In the 32nd minute of the half Skierka was again able to find the back of the net, giving the Wildcats a 2-0 lead at the end of the half.

The Wildcats wasted no time getting back into scoring positions in the second half, threatening to extend the lead courtesy of a shot from Izabella Johnson. The shot beat Bennett, but not the post in the 43rd minute. The lead was extended in the 51st minute by Meta Schutte who found her way unassisted through the Cardinal defenders. The Cardinals’ defense locked back in, holding off the Wildcats and trying to generate some offense of their own, but in the 72nd minute Caroline Sems broke free down the right side line and connected with Olivia Wiggins, who fired the ball into the left side of the net for the fourth and final goal of the night.

“They worked really hard in the second half …,” said Nielsen. “I was proud right to the end. We cracked a shot off at about a minute 30 left in the game, and we’re still trying, so I never get mad at effort, and I was really pleased to see the effort tonight.”

The Cardinals kept battling into the final minutes of the half with Kennedy Becker missing just high in the 75th minute. Francesca Martin tested the Wildcat goalkeeper again with only 20 seconds left on the clock. Though not the end they were after, the Cardinals finished their season with 14 wins.