Staff photo by Steve Muscatello New Ulm’s Ellie Cooper tries to get past a Wirthington defender during the first half Tuesday at New Ulm High School.

NEW ULM — New Ulm’s defense and high-octane attack led to a 6-0 shutout win over Worthington on Tuesday night in a Big South Conference girls’ soccer match. A five-goal night by sophomore Paige Kalis didn’t hurt the Eagles either.

Kalis’ five goals all came in the first half of Tuesday’s meeting with the Trojans, and it was also the first time Kalis notched five goals in a game.

“I’d like to give credit mostly to our defense today,” Kalis said. “If we wouldn’t have them, I wouldn’t have had the opportunities that I got today. Our midfield also — if I wouldn’t have gotten amazing passes from them … and if we wouldn’t have had really good transitions throughout the entire game, then we wouldn’t have been able to have the scoring opportunities that we had.”

New Ulm head coach Jonathan Johnson was also quick to give credit to his team’s defense, especially in the second half.

“Our defense really stood strong tonight,” Johnson said. “A lot of communication — kind of lacking a little bit in the first half — but the second half they really picked it up and were moving the ball, keeping it away from our goalkeeper.”

New Ulm started off slower in the first half when it came to scoring, but once Kalis put her first goal in off a pass from Nicole Porter in the 24th minute of play, things picked up in a big way for the Eagles. Kalis got another goal, this time unassisted, in the 30th minute to put the Eagles up 2-0.

Kalis added her third goal in the 33rd minute off of an assist from Elle Cooper before adding her fourth goal in the 36th minute off the assist from Gina Harmening. Kalis tacked on her fifth goal off an assist from Bekah Friendshuh in the 40th minute.

With Kalis taking a well-deserved break for a large majority of the second half on the bench, the Eagles continued to keep the Trojans on their toes with tough defense. Harmening added the final goal for New Ulm in the 71st minute off of a second Porter assist.

The Eagles had 24 shots on goal during the match and limited Worthington to just one shot on goal, which occurred in the second half.

New Ulm topped Worthington 8-0 last Thursday in Worthington and ended its home meeting with Worthington on Tuesday in a similar manner.

Kalis said that she thought her squad was off to a little bit slower of a start on Tuesday but was still happy with the home win.

“I think we weren’t clicking at first as we started the game,” Kalis said. “But we started talking and started getting our passing down and using our angles — it’s always harder on turf because the ball rolls away faster, but we got it done.”

New Ulm moves to 6-3 overall and 4-2 in the conference and are at Waseca for a 7 p.m. conference matchup Thursday.