Kettle Moraine Lutheran suffered a crushing loss to rival Winnebago Lutheran Academy on home turf Friday.
The Vikings, ranked first in Division 4, dominated set pieces, striking off both a corner kick and a free kick to take a 3-0 lead after 39 minutes.
The game looked out of the Chargers’ grasp, but KML’s Joseph Raasch dashed through the WLA defense to pull one back at 41 minutes.
Kettle Moraine trailed 3-1 at half, but entered the second frame with fiery determination and it showed.
The Chargers outplayed Winnebago for much of the second half, cutting the lead to 1 with another Raasch goal at 65 minutes.
A tying goal seemed within reach, but the Chargers couldn’t put it all together, losing 3-2.
Coach Matt Moeller said of KML’s effort, “We played a very tough match against a very tough non-conference opponent. We just slipped for 10 minutes to fall behind. But we fought hard to get the game back and almost equalized in the end. This match is very good preparation for the state tournament.”
The Chargers are now 11-4-3 on the season, while WLA remains unbeaten at 16-0-4.