The Austin U18 soccer boys soccer team is picking up where they left off last fall, but they couldn’t quite pull out a win against their toughest competition of the summer so far in Wescott Athletic Complex Tuesday.

Austin, which had outscored its first six opponents by a total of 34-3, had to settle for a 2-2 tie with unbeaten Park Valley when it allowed a game-tying breakaway goal in the game’s 52nd minute.

Austin (6-0-1 overall) out-shot Park Valley 15-7 and it had three great looks inside of 20 yards in the last 10 minutes of the game, but it wasn’t able to come up with the go-ahead score.

“This was definitely our toughest competition,” said Austin’s Dylan Hannegraf. “We played a pretty good game, there were just times that we got caught in the middle holding the ball too much. They came through on their chances and we couldn’t finish ours and that was a big difference, otherwise we played a really good game.”

Hannegraf helped give Austin a 2-1 lead when he found Kevin Oritz on a deep pass from the 50-yard line and Ortiz chipped a shot over the keeper in the 39th minute. Austin had led 1-0 when OJ Cham scored on a header in the 3rd minute.

The Packers took third place in the Minnesota Class A State Soccer Tournament last season and Austin has another solid group of players coming up this summer.

“Our team’s really good,” Ortiz said. “We’ve got a lot of younger kids and we’re helping them out, getting them ready for the higher levels in the fall.”

Hannegraf said he sees a lot of potential in the current team.

“We look forward to fall a lot, this is getting together with friends and playing competitive soccer,” he said. “Summer soccer really builds our fall program. We went to state last year, and we’re looking to make a better run next year.”