We know, famously, that Stella got her groove back. But so has the Mustangs girls’ soccer team. Probably.
After falling behind to Clear Creek Amana on Tuesday, April 7, at Armstrong Field, Mount Vernon rallied, but lost, 3-2.
Then Thursday, April 9, the Mustangs got their first win, 4-1, over Grinnell.
Add to that a season-opening loss to Class 5A Iowa City Liberty, 6-0, on Monday, April 6.
“Playing Monday and coming back the next night, we were still trying to get our groove,” Mount Vernon Coach Angie Knies said. “Down 3-0, with about 20 minutes left, we got it together. We figured out what worked for us. A little too late.”
CCA senior Lena Evans took advantage of some holes in the defense.
Evans got an easy goal in the first half when Mustang goalie Aubrey Ford came out to stop another shot and the ball squirted away.
Evans completed her hat track early in the second half. She first converted when a free kick that dribbled away from the defense, leaving the goal open, and the final one on a 30-yard shot that went in the top right corner of the goal.
“We were struggling a little bit with our defense, as we’re having some new players play,” senior Lilly Cook said. “But we’ll get it figured out.”
Part of it was giving Mavrik Schweer time in goal. The junior, who was a libero on the volleyball team, might be a little undersized, traditionally, as a goalie.
“We got her to come out this year and she’s been really great,” Knies said. “She is so good side-to-side in volleyball, we thought, why not try her out in goal?
“She is pretty much an energizer bunny for our team. She makes our back line want to work harder for her, since she is new.”
Mount Vernon closed the CCA match with a pair of late goals. Courtney Franck scored on a breakaway with about 25 minutes left, and then Liliana Groose did the same with about 8 minutes remaining.
“We were confident we could come back, and we were working back,” Cook said. “But the clock just wasn’t in our favor.”
Knies also said that several players were working through injuries on Tuesday, and were a little healthier against Grinnell.
On Thursday, Isabelle Logue, Timber Scholl, Franck and Miranda Sellner scored goals, and Emma Perreault had an assist.
“I told the girls Tuesday, we’ll take this loss and move on,” Knies said. “We found out what worked best for us.”