Staff photo by Steve Muscatello New Ulm’s Elle Cooper gets off a shot on goal despite defensive pressure from Suzanne Dietrich of St. Peter Thursday at NUHS. For more photos of this event go to cu.nujournal.com

NEW ULM — Prior to Thursday’s Big South Conference girls’ soccer match against St. Peter, scoring goals has been the main problem for New Ulm.

The Eagles had scored only six goals in the first five games of the season and that trend continued on Tuesday in a 3-1 loss to the Saints.

Elle Cooper scored New Ulm’s only goal of the game with 4:48 left when she got away from the St. Peter defense and took a pass from Madison Roufs. There, she lifted a shot that found the back of the net from about 30 yards out as the ball sailed over the keeper’s outstretched arms.

While it was dangerously close to being another shutout this week (New Ulm lost 7-0 to Waseca on Tuesday), it was a much better performance this time around for New Ulm.

“Our game plan was to play better than they did against Waseca, and we did,” Eagles coach Jonathan Johnson said. “The girls were pumped and a lot more focused when they were warming up. I’m happy that they picked their game up today.”

The Saints scored twice in the first half, the first coming with 12:56 left in the half from A.J. Brock. Barely a minute later, they added to the lead when Amelia Carlson broke away and took advantage of a hole in the defense.

St. Peter scored the third goal of the game less than 3 minutes into the second half, then held New Ulm away from the ball most of the half until Cooper’s goal late.

“It was a huge uplift for the girls just to get off that goose egg,” Johnson said of Cooper’s goal. “Elle did a really good job, Madison passed it forward and she was calling for it, it was a next to perfect pass to her and she lifted it up over the keeper’s head.”

New Ulm (0-4-2) is looking for it’s first win and travels to Mankato East on Monday for a nonconference battle.