Fairmont midfielder Grace Kotewa weaves through a pair of Worthington defenders during the first half of Thursday night’s contest at Jeffery Kot Field.

FAIRMONT – The Fairmont Area girls soccer team extended its winning streak to three games on Thursday night at Jeffery Kot Fields, topping fellow Big South Conference opponent Worthington 7-0 while celebrating seniors Grace Kotewa, Nola Thedens, and Audrina Suckow for their careers with the Cardinals.

In addition to the senior festivities, the Fairmont Soccer Association was hosting a pre-game tailgate throughout the complex, offering food, water and desserts to anyone filling the stands.

With so much noise going on in the background before the game even starts, Nielsen was hoping his squad could block out all distractions and still play a clean game.

“In games like this, you hope that they are not too sloppy because the girls are excited about all these things going on,” Nielsen said. “You have all these school peers from the band to the football team. You got pork chop on the stick going on … it all kind of amounts to this excitement.”

After 80 minutes of play, Nielsen was more than pleased with his team’s performance.

Fairmont finished the night with 25 shots on goal while scoring five times in the second half to eventually pull away from the Trojans. On the defensive side of things, the Cardinals’ back line held Worthington forwards to zero shots on goal, making it an easy night for goalkeeper Addison Folkerts.

“Obviously we were in control in the first half, but we were really in decisive control in the second half, where we were kind of imposing what we wanted to do,” Nielsen said. “All the players got a lot of playing time tonight, and we had nice distribution in scoring.”

The Cardinals came out of the initial horn with a sense of urgency on the offensive side of the field, applying pressure to both Worthington goalkeeper Netsanet Ergicho and her defensive line.

Midfielder Lauren Zarling got things going early for Fairmont by notching her first goal of the game just four minutes into the contest. She took advantage of Ergicho’s position in front of the net, belting a rainbow outside of the penalty area just over the outstretched hands of the keeper.

“She recognized that the keeper was way out,” Nielsen said. “She took a shot, and that was a nice ball to get us going tonight.”

The rest of the half saw the same sense of urgency from Fairmont offensively. Gwyneth Schultz, Alaina Helmers, Mackenzie Gerhardt, and Frankie Martin each got great looks from inside the net but were unfortunately unable to capitalize on stretching the Fairmont lead.

“We had players just wanting to score, and they were kind of forcing the game in the first half a little bit,” Nielsen said. “I’m not just talking about forwards and midfielders; the defense was setting it up and making the forwards do 50-yard runs. I had forwards asking off after six minutes because they had just done sprint after sprint.”

However, Fairmont was able to gather itself right before halftime, propelling the team into intermission after showing off some of its best passes of the night.

Martin again set the pace for another Fairmont offensive attack while screaming down the right side of the field. She connected with Lianna Weber after placing a beautiful pass right in front of the goal. Weber guided the ball directly into the left side of the net for her lone score of the game, doubling the Cardinal lead right before the halftime buzzer.

Gerhardt got the ball rolling three minutes into the second half of play with a goal of her own, finally capitalizing after being close to the net a handful of times prior.

With 29 minutes left to play in the contest, Martin got a chance to score after drawing a penalty kick from a Trojan defender. The junior calmly drove the ball deep into the left side of the net to put the early nail in the coffin for the Cardinals.

Kotewa tacked on two goals of her own at the 20- and 18-minute mark of the game after showing off her impressive dribbling skills from her forward position. Zarling finished things off with one last score with eight minutes to play, making this the third time this season Fairmont has scored seven or more goals in a single game.

“We started crossing or dropping and passing back,” Nielsen said about his team’s second-half offensive surge. “Our outside shots were truly from 10-plus yards up. It was better shot selection, and like any other sport, shot selection matters.”

Fairmont (9-3-1) continues the 2025 campaign this Saturday at the Albert Lea Hammer Complex to take on the Tigers. The first kick is set to begin at 1 p.m.