Piper Andrews received a through ball from Anna Anderson and used her speed to out run the Sauk Rapids-Rice defender to score the first goal of the game at the 36 minute mark of the first half.  Four minutes later Sauk Rapids-Rice tied the game.  Andrews scored her second goal of the game off a corner kick from Ellie Andersen with sixteen minutes remaining in the half. 

“Ellie placed a perfect ball inside the box and Piper busted through the mess of players to give us a 2-1 lead,” said Head Coach Ben Jurgens. 

With fourteen minutes left in the first half the Storm tied the game.  They took the lead with two minutes remaining in the half on a goal placed in the corner of the net.

Sauk Rapids-Rice increased their lead to 4-2 nine minutes into the second half and made it 5-2 with fourteen minutes to play.  Two minutes later Rylynn Krein took a throw-in deep into the Sauk Rapids-Rice zone and was able to get the ball into the box where Vanessa Vaughn put a left foot on the ball and punched it in, scoring in her varsity game.  At the seven minute mark Ellie Andersen took a corner kick and Piper Andrews pounded the ball just under the cross bar to record the hat trick, bringing the Otters to within a goal at 5-4.

With under a minute in the game and the Otters down by one Ellie Andersen took her last corner of the game and with the ball in the box the Otters ripped a shot toward the lower left corner and the Storm goalie made an amazing right-footed kick save to end the game.

“The Otter girls played a big, fast, and athletic team tonight, but never quit, even when they were down three goals,” said Coach Jurgens.  “The Otters played until the final whistle and the coaching staff could not be more proud.  We may not have won tonight, but more importantly we got better tonight as a team.”

The Otters play at Sartell on Thursday night.