STOUGHTON — The Cheesemakers capped the regular season with a pair of two-goal road losses to Fort Atkinson and Stoughton.
“It sucks because we can’t have any moral victories, but the way we are playing is how we practice to play,” said Samantha Rudi, Monroe’s head coach. “But this is a victory for us,” she said, adding that the three goals against Stoughton were tied for the most goals in game this season. “I don’t know how many shots we had, but I think for the most part we outplayed Stoughton and just got beat a couple of times to make up for their goals.”
After losing at Fort Atkinson June 3, the Cheesemakers went into the blistering heat at Stoughton and took an early 1-0 lead on a nifty shot from sophomore Atziri Ocampo late in the seventh minute. It was her first career varsity score. Stoughton came back and evened the score in the 15th minute, then took a 2-1 lead three minutes later. In the 26th minute, the Vikings extended the lead to 3-1, then went up 4-1 in the 33rd minute.
In the 41st minute, Monroe goalkeeper Kaelyn Welch stopped a penalty kick to give the Cheesemakers a bit of a jolt. The save quickly turned into a hard rush and a goal for Megan Benzschawel, trimming the score to 4-2 moments before the halftime whistle.
Stoughton made it 5-2 with less than 25 minutes to play, but Monroe played to the final whistle anyway and were rewarded with Benzschawel’s second goal of the game with 11 ½ minutes to play. In fact, in the final minutes the Cheesemakers nearly scored multiple times and nearly turned a 3-goal deficit into a draw — or even a win. In the end, however, the Vikings held on and the Cheesemakers lost.
“We had a ton of shots in that second half. We had the opportunity and played well enough to go ahead, let alone tie it up. I think our second half was pretty exceptional overall,” Rudi said. “We really came through some adversity in the heat.”
The Cheesemakers played three games in a five-day stretch, all in the sun and sweltering heat. The squad comes back for a couple of days of training before opening the playoffs at Evansville June 10. The winner will likely travel to Platteville June 12 for the regional final.
“If you think of our first scrimmage (against Evansville) and our first game to this game against Stoughton, we are not the same team. We’ve really come a long way,” Rudi said. “If anything, this will be a great benchmark from where we started to potentially where we finish. We’ll be able to visibly see our growth.”
Sugar River 5, Watertown Luther Prep 0
WATERTOWN — The Raiders capped an unbeaten Capitol Conference schedule June 3.
Jaylynn Benson had three goals, and Francesca Schiro and Jenna Gentilli each added goals for Sugar River. Regyn Jelle and Madi Winterburn each had an assist, and Paige Leonard had two assists.
In goal, Morgan Thompson saved both shots that came her way in the first half, and Kaitlyn Peterson had a save in the second half.
The Raiders earned the top seed in the regional and will host Jefferson June 10 in the regional semifinals. A win would pit the Raiders against either Dodgeville-Mineral Point or Edgerton.
