MILTON — The Badger Large Conference that Milton’s girls soccer team plays in has proven to be the gauntlet everyone thought it would be.
The Red Hawks ran into their fair share of struggles in league play over the course of the season, but they put that behind them this week starting with a 2-1 win over Watertown on Tuesday.
The pendulum kept swinging Milton’s way Thursday night on Carl F. Anderson Field at Jerry Schliem Stadium with a 4-0 nonconference win over Whitewater/Palmyra-Eagle.
Senior Ava Parke netted a hat trick for the Red Hawks on their Senior Night, with two of her three goals assisted by classmate Holly Morehart.
Morehart also scored a goal herself, and junior Kaelyn Kanable had a pair of assists.
“I think a lot of it, obviously, was the emotions of Senior Night, and then we did just get off a big losing streak, so we had a lot of momentum from winning on Tuesday,” Morehart said.
The first goal came in the game’s opening minutes down the right side of the pitch. Kanable and Parke had a two-on-one opportunity against a Whippets defender down the right flank.
Kanable popped a pass over the defender’s head, then Parke put a shot high over the goalkeeper and into the top right corner of the frame from the edge of the penalty area.
The Red Hawks enjoyed most of the possession for the rest of the first half but couldn’t string together another goal.
Whitewater/Palmyra-Eagle saw the first of its few scoring chances at the end of the period, but Milton goalkeeper Emma Kligora caught a couple of shot attempts, and the Whippets misplaced a couple of passes to end the threats.
Milton also got saved by the buzzer at the end of the first half. The Whippets won a free kick in a dangerous spot just outside the penalty area, but the clock didn’t stop and hit the 40-minute mark before the kick could be taken.
“We got the early goal, but then it was just going through the motions for a little bit, kind of lacking energy, and they knew it at halftime,” Milton coach Ryan Wagner said. “We said in the first 10 minutes (of the second half), let’s get out there and take it to them.”
That was exactly what the Red Hawks did.
With a refreshed attacking vigor, they built up an attack down the left side, where Morehart found the ball at her feet in the penalty area. She crossed it hard and low across the 6-yard box, and Parke was able to tap it in to make it 2-0 in the 42nd minute.
Milton’s fourth goal had a similar look to it. Morehart sprinted past the outside defender down the left channel, and another low cross found Parke, who punched it in again to finish her hat trick in the 55th minute.
“I know I’m going to get it from you every time,” Parke told her teammate after the game. “I didn’t even do anything — straight to my feet.”
In between, Morehart scored her own remarkable goal. The Whippets struggled to clear a Red Hawk corner kick, and the ball came to Kanable on the right wing.
Her cross floated over a Whitewater/Palmyra-Eagle defender onto Morehart’s head, who flicked a backward header into the far side of the net.
“I’ve never hit a header before for a goal,” Morehart said. “I thought I was concussed for a second. I think I closed my eyes, too. And then everyone was cheering — I was like, ‘Let’s go!’”
Whitewater/Palmyra-Eagle managed a couple more scoring chances after going down 4-0, but none really threatened to breach the Milton goal.
Wagner praised Kligora for her work in the penalty area — she had four saves and broke up a couple other Whitewater attacking moves — and he said Sophia Rasmussen did a nice job of cleaning up in the back in front of Kligora.
The Red Hawks’ next game will be at 10 a.m. Saturday at home against Monona Grove. The teams are making it up after lightning around game time scrubbed their first attempt to play earlier this month.
“Saturday will be a good test for us just to see where we’re at,” Wagner said. “Hopefully we can get fully healthy in the next week and a half or so before playoffs. I think we can suprise some teams like we did last year.”
MILTON 4, WHITEWATER/PALMYRA-EAGLE 0
Milton 1 3 — 4
WPE 0 0 — 0
FIRST HALF
M — Ava Parke (Kaelyn Kanable), 4th minute.
SECOND HALF
M — Parke (Holly Morehart), 42nd minute. M — Morehart (Kanable), 49th minute. M — Parke (Morehart), 55th minute.
Shots — M 15, WPE 6. Shots on goal — M 9, WPE 4. Corners — M 5, WPE 0. Offside — M 4, WPE 1. Fouls — M 9, WPE 5. Saves — Emma Kligora (M) 4, Marina Linos (WPE) 4.
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