The Austin girls soccer team bounced back from its worst loss of the season and a sluggish first half to as it grabbed a little momentum and tied with Red Wing (2-5-3 overall, 1-3-3 Big Nine) 1-1 in Art Hass Stadium Thursday.

Austin freshman Hope Dudyhca nearly gave the Packers the win as she had a free kick go off the cross bar with 46 seconds left in regulation and she had another free kick stopped on a diving save by Red Wing’s Ashlyn Nystuen with just 10 seconds left in the final OT.

Austin had trailed 1-0 at the half and the Packers struggled to create scoring opportunities in the first frame.

“We know we can play and we know what our abilities are. It just comes down to our belief,” Austin head coach Jake Levisen said. “We believe in ourselves and we believe in our team and we have to have a strong mindset. At the start of the game that mindset wasn’t there and at the end it was. We just kept on pushing the pace and that’s what we can do.”

The Packers (1-9-1 overall, 1-7-1 Big Nine) finished with 12 shots in the game and Morgan Raymond scored the equalizer just 46 seconds into the second half when she fired a breakaway chance into the net. Raymond said the Packers were ready to come out and play after a tough loss to Owatonna by a score of 11-1 on the roady Tuesday night.

“We don’t like to think about it too much, knowing it wasn’t our best game,” Raymond said. “It didn’t define us and we can do so much better than that. We tried not to dwell on it and we focused on our games coming up.”

Austin’s defense made some huge plays throughout the game as Robin Weaver, who had 11 saves, made a huge leaping save in the first half, and Cassity Nangle, who had 10 stops, made a pair of key diving saves on breakaways in the second half.

“We were doing it together,” Austin junior Emily Bollum said. “We worked together as a team and we were getting it up the field together.”

Levisen was thrilled with the effort the defense gave against the Wingers.

“Our defense and our goalies had a fantastic game,” Levisen said. “Both goalies made phenomenal stops and our D was able to shut down their through ball and contain it really well. When we’re working together like that, that little spark can ignite a lot.”