By Jake Schroer
Crow River News Sports
Beginning a series of road games, the River Hawks got off to a good start with a 4-3 win over the Moorhead Spuds Friday night in Moorhead.
Alana Achterkirch notched the first goal of the game in the first period (Greta Stanton). 1-0 would be the lead at the end of the opening 20 minutes. The Spuds came back and tied the contest in the second period.
Molly Young gave North Wright County its second lead of the night (Achterkirch), but the Spuds knotted up the score at 2-2.
Captain Greta Stanton scored the go-ahead goal in the third period (Achterkirch), and Paige Falde extended the lead with her first varsity goal to make the score 4-2. 15 seconds later, the Spuds cut the lead in half, but NWC held on for its first win of the 2015-2016 season.
ALEXANDRIA
Earlier, on Tuesday, the River Hawks took a tough 6-2 loss to the Alexandria Cardinals.
The home opener at the Moose Sheritt Arena got off to a rough start in the first period. McKenzie Revering got the Cardinals on the board (Mari Wosepka, Alexis Heckert). Mackenzie Abrahamson scored a couple minutes later to get the score to 2-0 (Sam Klimek).
McKenna Ellingson made it 3-0 at the halfway point of the opening 20 minutes with a power play goal (Kristin Trosvig, Wosepka).
The River Hawks gained momentum with goals by McKayla Peterson and Greta Stanton (Camryn Wilson) toward the end of the first period and went into the first intermission trailing 3-2.
Allison O’Kane extended the Alexandria lead shortly into the second period. Revering picked up her second goal to make it 5-2 (Heckert, Lauren Niska). Kristin Trosvig scored short-handed early in the third to make the score 6-2.
Head coach Jason Johnson said he and the other coaches got frustrated after falling down 3-0 to start the game.
“I don’t know how ready we were to play in our home opener, and so that’s disappointing,” Johnson said.
St. Francis was the next stop for the River Hawks, who played the Saints on Tuesday. They play Cambridge-Isanti on Friday night.