Brainerd Girls’ Soccer Riding Confidence to Hot Start in 2024

Brainerd girls’ soccer ended an injury-riddled 2023 showing promise. This year, the girls are cooking early, winning five of their first seven contests.

The Warriors were underestimated when they entered the Section 8AAA playoffs last season, but that left them with not only peak motivation, but also a newfound belief in each other.

“Last year, especially our Sartell game, we came in as the underdog and we ended up upsetting Sartell, which really, I think, gave everybody a shock almost, that really anything can happen, even if you’re the underdog,” said captain and midfielder Kylee Soens. “And I just think that has carried into this season as well. Like, really anything can happen. It doesn’t matter if you’re winning, losing, anything can happen.”

The girls’ collective belief in each other is showing on the pitch. The team is flexing its defense prowess, allowing only 10 goals through the first seven games.

“Our defense has been doing a really good job at stepping to,” Soens stated. “They’re not afraid to come up to the 18 and take that ball from the opposing team’s attacker because they know they have other people behind them. If they do mess up or somebody coming in to double, they just always have people. If they mess up, they do have people to take their fall for it.”

And on the flip side, the girls are consistently finding the back of the net, scoring 30 goals thus far with 10 different players contributing to the tally.

“[We’re] focusing on ground balls more so than through balls,” explained captain and right back Ava Lust. “We’ve noticed that we get a lot more controlled shots and more plays happen when we’re controlled and are able to pass on the ground.”

“We had the nine-goal game against Fergus [Falls] and seven different people scored,” said head coach Grant Gmeinder. “[We’re] continuing to find feet play to feet, play to each other. We have a lot of really fast, athletic kids and it’s kind of fun to kick it far and watch ’em run sometimes. But that’s not when we’re at our best.”

The Warriors find they’re at their best when they exhibit patience.

“Don’t let your stress build up, because that’s where we just want to send it downfield or just play by ourselves, really,” added Soens. “But if we play as a team, it helps everybody relax and us just play a better game in general.”

The Warriors have eight different players with multiple goals so far. They will look to put together another exceptional performance on Thursday, September 12th against St. Cloud Tech.