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On Monday, Sept. 18, the team hosted the Becker varsity team at Centennial Park in Richmond for their first varsity game of the season. Chain of Lakes got off to a good start by scoring two goals in the first half, one by Dan Nies of Rocori and the other by junior Keegan Meagher of Paynesville.

Going into the second half with a 2-0 lead, things really seemed to be going their way when the referee awarded a penalty kick to Chain of Lakes, which Nies put in the back of the net for a 3-0 lead.

But an important lesson was learned in this game, that you can never take a victory for granted. Becker came back with three goals in the space of ten minutes, including a penalty kick of their own, to tie the game. It was a credit to the boys that they hung in there and refused to concede another goal.

Later in the game Chain of Lakes missed a penalty kick, which would have given them the win. Instead they had to settle for a 3-3 tie after a scoreless overtime.

Game two for the week was against the Little Falls junior varsity team on Thursday, Sept. 21. Playing in a constant rain, the Little Falls team scored first to put the pressure on the Chain of Lakes boys. But two goals, one from Felipe Vercosa, a foreign exchange students at ROCORI and the other from Meagher (scoring in his fifth consecutive game) gave the boys a 2-1 half-time lead.

Hard play to start the second half lead to a penalty kick which Vercosa netted for a 3-1 lead.

Later in the half Little Falls was awarded a penalty kick, which was initially saved by junior goalkeeper Chris Block of Paynesville, but the linesmen ruled that Block had moved too early and on the second attempt Little Falls scored, making the final 3-2.

Two days later the team traveled to Spring Lake Park to play the Panthers junior varsity team, a team they lost to 13-0 the year before. This game showed just how much improvement the boys had made. Spring Lake Park scored in the first half to take a 1-0 lead. That score held through much of the game until just under five minutes when Ben Statz of ROCORI moved up to left wing from defense and was able to crack the Spring Lake Park goalie and tied the game at 1-1, which was the final score.

Meagher played in goal the first half with eighth grader Mitchell Meed of Paynesville playing a fine game in goal in the second half.

The boys continue play with two games this week. They hosted the Minnewaska varsity team on Tuesday, Sept. 26, at Centennial Park in Richmond at 5 p.m. Then they will travel to Sartell on Friday, Sept. 29, for a rematch with the Sabres junior varsity at 4:30 p.m.

Chain of Lakes Girls
On Thursday, Sept. 7, the Chain of Lakes girls' soccer team traveled to Sartell for a rematch with the Sabres junior varsity, a team they had defeated a week earlier. Unfortunately they did not enjoy the same result. In a very physical game Sartell came out ahead with a 4-2 victory.

One of the Sabre goals was on an incorrectly awarded penalty kick by the referee. So the score would have been closer. Also, one of the Chain of Lakes players received a red card, which meant that they had to play the rest of the game with only ten players. Scoring for the girls were junior Kailey Kincade of Paynesville, with an assist from Kacey Nyberg of Rocori, and a second goal from eighth grader Jenna Kincade of Paynesville.

The girls then had two very difficult games, first facing Alexandria on Saturday, Sept. 16, losing 9-0. Then on Monday, Sept. 18, they traveled to Minnewaska, where they faced their first varsity competition of the year with a similar 9-0 loss.

The next games for the girls will be Monday, Sept. 25, at home against St. Cloud Tech at 5 p.m. and then a road game at Sauk Rapids on Saturday, Sept. 30, at 1:30 p.m.