Staff photo by Travis Rosenau From left to right, New Ulm’s Jesalyn Skoglund and Julia Dewitt (11) celebrate with Olivia Enter (19) after Enter’s third goal of Thursday’s nonconference girls soccer game with Jordan at New Ulm High School.

NEW ULM — After Olivia Enter got the New Ulm Eagles on the board midway through the second half, there wasn’t anything stopping her and her team after that.

Behind the senior’s second-half hat trick, New Ulm erupted for four consecutive goals to battle back and down Jordan 4-2 in a nonconference girls soccer game Thursday at New Ulm High School.

Down 2-0, Enter notched her first goal of the game and season in the 60th minute to have the Eagles down 2-1. Enter got that goal courtesy of teammate Stina Quist, whose shot was deflected and cleaned up by Enter.

Once the wheels were in motion, Enter and the Eagles weren’t going to be slowed down.

“It definitely took a while,” Enter said. “And then once one [goal] came, then there were little goosebumps and it just kept going, got more adrenaline.”

Less than two minutes later in the 62nd minute, Enter tied the game from the top of the goal box with her second goal after a cross and assist from Jesalyn Skoglund. Enter completed her hat trick in the 63rd minute unassisted on a low shot past the diving Jordan keeper Taylor Elsenpeter.

This was a game New Ulm had circled on its calendar after Jordan eliminated the Eagles from the playoffs last year in the opening round of the Section 2AA tourney. Jordan won that game 4-2 on Oct. 10, 2023, in Jordan.

“We definitely came in wanting to win this game and we got it,” Enter said.

Getting to see Jordan right away to start the 2024 season, New Ulm didn’t go without some struggles in the first half. Jordan outshot New Ulm 10-4 in shots on goal in that half and was firmly in command offensively, with a goal by Emma Schatz in the 16th minute and a penalty kick goal by Tessa Cook in the 19th minute. The penalty kick came after New Ulm goalie Ellie Dake was penalized after sliding into Emerson Rietschel while trying to stop the ball.

While the defense kept New Ulm in the game heading into halftime, much of the first-half struggles were attributed by head coach Jonathan Johnson to trying a new formation.

“We were working on a new formation … the younger girls did it during the summer program,” Johnson said. “But the 16-, 17-, 18- [year-olds] did not and this was new to them, and they were a little skeptical about it. You could tell by the final 20 minutes of the first half, it was just kind of disheveled. So we switched back to a 4-3-3, that’s something they grew up with and you could just tell they were much more relaxed and they weren’t freaking out about where they were supposed to be or who they were supposed to be covering.

“Then the shots started happening and they got that first one in and you could just see that frown turned into a smile. And they were actually talking again because the first half they weren’t talking at all.”

After Enter’s third goal gave New Ulm the lead, Mallory Novak added an insurance goal in the 69th minute to give the Eagles a 4-2 lead. Jordan had just one shot on goal in the second half, giving Dake a total of nine saves in the game.

New Ulm, meanwhile, had 11 shots on goal in the second half to finish with 15.

While the first half wasn’t ideal, Enter thinks the Eagles can continue showing what they showed in the second half of Thursday’s game and improve the rest of the season.

“I think it will get better,” Enter said. “It was just a bit rusty to start, but I think we’ll end up somewhere.”

New Ulm (1-0) is at Fairmont on Tuesday for a Big South Conference game.