Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm’s Mallory Novak (7) get a shot past diving Jordan keeper Taylor Elsenpeter for a goal as Jordan’s Keira Walkington (5) looks on during a Section 2AA girls soccer quarterfinal game at New Ulm High School on Tuesday.

NEW ULM — The New Ulm Eagles already defeated the Jordan Jaguars their first game of the 2024 season on Aug. 22, but the Eagles were able to hand an even bigger receipt to the Jaguars on Tuesday evening at New Ulm High School.

With a 4-0 shutout of the fifth-seeded Jaguars in a Section 2AA Girls Soccer Tournament quarterfinal game, the fourth-seeded Eagles earned a spot in this Thursday’s section semifinals.

New Ulm erased a 2-0 deficit in their first game of the year at home against Jordan to win 4-2. Almost one full year ago on Oct. 10, 2023, however, Jordan eliminated New Ulm from the playoffs with a 4-2 win, making this Tuesday’s shutout all the more sweeter for the Eagles.

“I think it’s real exciting,” Eagles senior midfielder Julia Dewitt said of the win. “I think it shows the growth that we’ve had since the last year and I’m just real excited to keep playing.”

Dewitt had a goal on a penalty kick Tuesday and added an assist on the second of senior attacker Olivia Enter’s two goals in the game.

The win moves New Ulm on to play top-seeded Mankato West at 5 p.m. Thursday at the Caswell North Soccer Complex in North Mankato.

Freshman midfielder Mallory Novak was another highlight for the Eagles in their win, notching her first career playoff goal in her first career playoff game.

“It was definitely super exciting,” Novak said of her goal, which put the Eagles up 3-0 in the first half. “Also that I wasn’t even starting and then I came in and did it was really cool.”

The Eagles outshot the Jaguars 20-7 in the game, giving New Ulm’s eighth-grade goalie Greta Berger less to worry about. A big part of that came on the defensive end for New Ulm, led by senior defender Yanellie Fernandez.

With New Ulm up 4-0, Yanellie Fernandez caught up with Jordan’s Emma Schatz, who had a clear path towards the net, and booted the ball out of bounds before Schatz could get a shot off. Yanellie Fernandez did that again to Schatz moments later with less than seven minutes to play.

“So we always want to try to do the offsides trick, but last time we played [Jordan], they had four attackers, so we started off with a four-back,” Yanellie Fernandez said. “But once they noticed that we were attacking more and we had a midfield, then they decided to pull away more attackers and they ended up three or two up there, so we could change our defense, too.”

Junior defender Yuridia Fernandez, Yanellie Fernandez’s younger sister, also had a solid effort on defense for the Eagles, with arguably her biggest moment coming in the second half after a corner kick was deflected by Berger. While Berger stopped the shot, the ball was loose in front of the net before Yuridia Fernandez cleared it out of the goal area to help preserve the shutout.

The Eagles’ first goal of the game came in the fourth minute off a corner kick by Piper Kapolczynski that dropped in front of the near post before Enter tapped it in. In the 13th minute, Dewitt worked a through pass to Enter. Enter then capitalized on a clear shot at the net after Jordan goalie Taylor Elsenpeter fell down backing up into position, putting New Ulm up 2-0.

Elsenpeter was caught out of position again in the 33rd minute, allowing Novak to get the ball past a diving Elsenpeter for a goal and 3-0 lead.

Enter, whose hat trick led the Eagles to their comeback win over Jordan to start the season, was in a good spot early in the second half to have another hat trick on a breakaway. She was knocked to the turf in close, however, giving the Eagles a penalty kick in the 47th minute. That penalty kick was taken by Dewitt, who buried her shot into the left side of the net for a 4-0 lead.

Yanellie Fernandez said while the Eagles have had to deal with injuries to goalies, she’s proud of how Berger has filled in and said the Eagles’ defense works well together.

“I am super happy by how it went because we lost our goalie, but we’ve got an eighth-grader in there now and I’m super-duper proud of her, she’s doing amazing,” she said. “Our defense works together, we’re like one person. We move together so smoothly, I like how it works.”

The Eagles, now 7-9-1, have rarely been at full strength this season due to injuries and illnesses. That was the case for them the last time they played Mankato West in North Mankato on Sept. 21, an 8-2 loss for New Ulm.

Both the Fernandez sisters weren’t playing in that game, and both New Ulm goalies Chloe Sherrod and Ellie Dake got injured during the game.

The Eagles will look to come out swinging on Thursday in hopes of pulling out an upset over the Scarlets.

“We were missing some players the last time we played [West],” Dewitt said. “So, I think we’re going to go in, be really aggressive, intense, first to the ball and hopefully we can change that outcome.”