Girls' soccer tram wraps up strong closing week

Coming off a strong performance against East Ridge, the Park Wolfpack snapped a three-game losing streak with a solid 4-0 win at Forest Lake Thursday in the regular season finale.

Kendall Schumacher scored two goals for the Wolfpack, while Kylee Nickle and Ayla Lettner had one goal each. Gabby Faletti led Park with three assists, Gracie Smith added one.

Park finished the regular season with a 2-6-1 record in the Suburban East Conference and is 5-9-2 overall.

Paige Stewart and Ainsley Lucus combined for the shutout victory in goal.

Park had been shutout in six of its last nine games, but finally found its offense in the last week, with 4-0 wins over Irondale and Forest Lake and a 3-5 loss to a good East Ridge team.

East Ridge 5, Park 3

The visiting East Ridge Raptors took a 3-1 lead by the half and led 4-1 with 31:44 to play in the second, but Park let the Raptors know they were in for a soccer game with a stirring rally for the rest of the game.

Park played some of its best soccer of the season in the second half, matching the Raptors two goals each.

“A really great effort,” said Park co-head coach Stacy Paleen. “A really great effort. Our senior night, probably our last home game and so, loved what we saw in terms of effort. Not dropping down. We made a couple of mistakes, but the girls battled and stayed strong and tied the second half. We liked to see that.

“It (the offense) was working,” Paleen continued. “Finally. They’re trusting the system, their believing in it. Their doing what we ask them to do so yea we’re getting there. I can’t remember the last time we scored three goals on East Ridge.”

Maddie Finstad, Kylee Nickle and Ava Taschner each scored for the Wolfpack. Gabby Faletti had two assists and Hanna Williams one.
“I think we all really worked hard,” said Faletti. “We all wanted it as a team, and we came together like we realized this isn’t going to last forever. And I think we all worked really hard to work as a team and we all just connected really well and it’s a fun game to play.”

“I think we were quick, we were on our toes, and we had a lot of fun, and we played hard,” said Finstad. “We played really hard, and it (the season) goes so fast.”

Paige Stewart stopped 8 of 13 shots in goal for the Wolfpack.