Staff photo by Steve Muscatello New Ulm’s Gina Harmening gets the ball past Judy Keophimphone of Worthington Thursday at New Ulm High School. For more photos of this event go to cu.nujournal.com

NEW ULM — It was exactly the game the New Ulm girls’ soccer team needed.

Entering Thursday’s play, New Ulm was still seeking its first win of the year and with another winless team coming to town, New Ulm took advantage and defeated Worthington 9-0 in Big South Conference action at New Ulm High School.

Elle Cooper scored three goals while Jessica Moellenhoff and Elise Webb added two more as the Eagles improved to 1-5-2 on the season. They dominated the ball, outshooting the Trojans 16-1.

“The girls needed the confidence lift and they’ve been playing hard the first half of the season and just coming up short,” New Ulm coach Jonathan Johnson said. “It was nice to see them with smiles on their faces at halftime and have them joking around and having fun.”

Worthington entered the game allowing an average of more than 10 goals per game and New Ulm took advantage. Bekah Friendshuh scored the game’s first goal just 5 minutes into the contest and Elle Cooper made it 2-0 12 minutes in.

Jessica Moellenhoff and Madison Roufs later added goals before halftime and New Ulm led 4-0 at the break.

While the Eagles had the advantage at the break, it was important for them to finish strong in the second half and they did just that.

Moellenhoff scored her second goal of the game 9 minutes into the second half and Cooper netted consecutive goals to make it 7-0.

Webb finished the scoring with two consecutive goals late in the game.

New Ulm got assists from Kalis, Gina Harmening, Cooper and Ashlyn Berg in the game.

New Ulm has a busy week next with a home game on Monday against Fairmont. The Eagles are at Loyola on Tuesday, St. Peter on Thursday and they host Glencoe-Silver Lake on Saturday.