Girls Soccer: Young Chippewa Falls squad learning lessons early in season (2024)

Every game this season will be a learning experience for the Chippewa Falls girls soccer team.

More often than not the Cardinals will be the team with less experience on the pitch with most of the lineup seeing their first significant batch of varsity playing time. Chippewa Falls fell to Washburn 5-0 on Saturday afternoon at Dorais Field in a nonconference matchup. Rowan O'Laughlin scored twice for the Castle Guards while Anna Ledin, Mariya Kannesgiesser and Maddie Ludwig had goals in the victory.

Washburn (1-2) scored twice before the halfway mark of the first half and kept the pressure on in the second half with the final three goals.

“The big thing is this is three games in a row where we felt we were somewhat evenly matched or we had a shot at it and it didn’t go our way," Chippewa Falls coach Al Ali said. "Part of that is we have two seniors, two juniors, seven sophom*ores and two freshmen while everyone else has nine seniors (or) ten seniors, they’re rolling experienced upperclassmen and we’re very inexperienced not just age wise but in playing wise as well.”

Chippewa Falls (0-4) has lost its first four games but their two prior to Saturday were two-goal defeats, first a 4-2 loss at Holmen last Saturday before a 3-1 loss to Superior on Thursday.

Midfielders Kadiatou Diallo and Asia Duda are in the middle of plenty of what the Cardinals want to do as experienced midfielders while juniors forwards Elizabeth Dallas and Reagan Palichat also provide punch on offense. Elsewise the Cardinals are made up of younger players for a defense that is gaining experience.

“This one’s on me, I have to do a better job of getting them prepared for certain things especially when we have an off day because we had an off day," Ali said. They (Washburn) played really well but we had an off day. I have to do a better job of making sure we’re focused and ready to go."

Joy Boehnen made a pair of saves in net for Chippewa Falls.

Kadi Diallo scored both goals for the Cards in last weekend's road loss and Dallas netted her first of the season versus the Spartans.

The path ahead gets no easier for Chippewa Falls as following Tuesday's nonconference road game in Wisconsin Rapids, the Cardinals play at always-strong Eau Claire Memorial on Thursday. The next two home games for Chippewa Falls are versus Stevens Point (April 20) and New Richmond (April 22) before a stretch of four of five on the road starts at Eau Claire North on April 25.

In the early part of the season, Ali is looking for fight and resiliency from his team — two things he believes it has shown. Saturday's loss to Washburn was a tough one, but Ali has no doubt his team will return to start the next week of practice ready to go and keep improving.

“We’re going to take our lumps and starting the way we have it’s a rough start and it’s not going to get any easier for us as conference play heats up, but they’ve just got to keep getting better every day," Ali said.