Wildcat girls’ soccer and the weather took a turn for the worse last Thursday in River Falls. Thursday morning, outside temperatures were in the low 80's and calm. The Wildcats had racked up two previous conference wins over Menomonie and New Richmond the week prior. Hudson had lost to Eau Claire Memorial and tied Wausau West the week before, a team River Falls beat 3-0 at the end of April. 

Thursday evening, however, was definitely different. The recent summer-like temperatures vanished. It felt like late-fall football weather with a 40-mph autumn wind blustering in from the west. The American flag on the north end of the stadium sounded like a constant army of hotel maids popping fresh high-thread-count sheets while making beds. 

Like the famous NFL Films poem narrated by the celestial baritone voice of John Facenda, the Hudson Raiders strutted on to the pitch.

"The Autumn wind is a Raider, pillaging just for fun,” the NFL Films masterpiece continues. “He'll knock you ‘round and upside down and laugh when he's conquered and won."

The Hudson Raiders did just that. With the unrelenting wind whipping in a northeast direction, the Raiders were big and bold with the wind in the first half that ended in a 0-0 tie.

"We played super well defending Hudson in the first half," said Wildcat junior Olivia Doerre. "But they showed up at the start of the second half."

With just under three and a half minutes into the second half, Hudson's Lily Rouleau’s shot carved its way through the wind and found the back of the net for a 1-0 Raider lead.

A River Falls' penalty outside of the box a little under three minutes later gave the Raiders' Maggie McConnell a penalty kick. The Wildcats built their human navy-blue wall in front of the net ready to take a soccer ball sting for the team. The five-person human shield guessed McConnell was kicking high and, in unison, they jumped. McConnell's kicked stayed married to the turf and rolled past Wildcat goaltender Addie Johnson like an empty Frito bag parachuted by the breeze for the 2-0 lead.

"We came out flat in the second half," said River Falls Head Coach Charles Conley. "Hudson had more energy and more pace."

About midway through the second half, the Wildcats had a golden opportunity to cut the deficit in half as Hudson was called for a penalty inside the goalie box. No human shields are allowed when the penalty is inside the goalie box, and it was Doerre against senior Raider goaltender Hannah Kendhammer at point-blank range.

"I always go left on PKs (penalty kicks)," said Doerre. "That's my side and now the whole world's going to know now after this interview, so maybe I'll have to switch it up."

Doerre's expectation of the Pierce County Journal readership numbers may be more dramatic than a John Facenda-voiced NFL Films video, but it was an exciting point in the match.

"It's a guess at that point," said Kendhammer. "I don't have much to go off of and it's a gut feeling. I went with my gut Liv (Olivia Doerre) was kicking it this way (to Kendhammer's right) and it worked out for us."

Kendhammer dropped the hammer on Doerre's penalty kick and her gloved paw swatted the ball straight out of bounds and saved a perfect scoring opportunity for River Falls.

"Hannah's (Kendhammer) my club teammate and I'm happy for her, but next time I'm going to put it in," Doerre said.

The Hudson defense tightened up the rest of the way, killing the clock and keeping the ball out of their zone as much as possible. The Raiders held on for the 2-0 Big Rivers Conference victory.

"We've been playing well lately," said Conley, "and we didn't need this game as much as Hudson did, so that's part of the challenge of coaching. We talked about learning more from losing and we've had a lot of winning, but tonight, we learned more from losing."

The Wildcats are entering their end-of-the-regular-season conference tournament this week. They will play the winner of New Richmond/Superior on Thursday, travel to Hudson next Tuesday, and then host Eau Claire Memorial next Thursday. The best "body of work" in the three-game round-robin play-off will be crowned Big Rivers Conference champions.

"If we come back and sweep,” said Conley, “we're conference champs. That's our goal."