The Scarlets got to New Ulm in the second half, however, scoring two goals within two minutes and adding another two later on to run away with a 4-1 win at New Ulm High School.

All goals were scored in the final 16 minutes of play, with West getting on the board first in the 64th minute after Lillian Caya got past a defender and fired a shot by Eagles goalie Ellie Dake into the left side of the net. Kambrie Konz then hustled by a pair of New Ulm defenders and fired a left-footed shot from the left side that bounced into the right side of the net for a 2-0 West lead in the 66th minute.

Up until those goals, New Ulm defenders made several stops and poke tackles when pressured and Dake made several key saves, two off corner kicks.

West’s pressure, while sometimes overzealous as it finished the game being called for offsides eight times, was too much to contain in the end.

Photo by Brady Dennis New Ulm’s Amelia Hinkle (9) looks to secure a high pass in front of Mankato West’s Harper Ringler (8) during the second half of Monday night’s nonconference girls soccer game at New Ulm High School.

“I think our defense was running out of gas right towards the end of the game there,” Eagles head coach Jonathan Johnson said. “I know they’ll deny it [laughs], but nonetheless, we gave up some goals and I didn’t expect that and I don’t think they did either, either team for that matter. We had them on the ropes the first half and played them really well. I’m proud of the girls, they played hard, we just didn’t play our best second half.”

West had 14 shots on goal to New Ulm’s eight.

After exchanging early shots on goal in the first half, the Scarlets went on the attack but got a bit careless with their positioning as they were called offsides three times in the opening 15 minutes alone. The Eagles ended the game without one offsides called on them.

Eagles defender Yessenia Fernandez had two early chasedown poke tackles to prevent a pair of West shots on goal early, and the Eagles had a couple of chances to score after that. One big opportunity came off a West save by keeper Marta Diaz, who deflected the ball back out to Eagles attacker Jesalyn Skoglund. Skoglund was too far in, however, and her soft putback attempt trickled wide right of the net to keep the game scoreless.

On the other end of the pitch, Dake had her hands full late in the first half literally as she made a share of late saves to keep the game scoreless. One late save came off a corner kick by Greta Johnson and another save came off a hard shot in close by Madeleine Mitchell, which Dake caught just above her head.

Dake and the New Ulm defense got even busier in the second half as West got going. After Dake’s fifth of 10 saves in the game, Eagles freshman Aubrey Correa made a key pokeaway on the defense on what was almost a one-on-one scoring opportunity for the Scarlets.

But after a few more Dake saves, West got into the scoring column twice within two minutes on goals by Caya and Konz to lead 2-0.

New Ulm didn’t quit and got a nice pass in transition from Morgan Zimanski that Skoglund finished by putting it in the net in the 70th minute. The Eagles were quickly backed up on defense, however, as a another shot from Konz found the back of the net for a 3-1 West lead in the 74th minute. The Scarlets added an insurance goal in the 76th minute when Konz scored to complete the hat trick.

“They’ve always been that way, Mankato West has always had speed,” coach Johnson said. “They had probably three girls that were really, really fast and they just got to the point where they were outrunning us and then we got the results that we did.”

The Eagles have a quick turnaround as they host Worthington at 6:45 p.m. Tuesday night.