Entering Thursday, everyone knew that top-ranked Chicago Mission would be a stiff test for Team North Dakota in Youth Tier I 14U, but few could have predicted a 14-1 final score. Such a wide margin is almost unprecedented at Nationals, but now there’s precedent, thanks to a potent Mission attack that included nine goal-scorers led by Wyatt Schingoethe (4G).

“We definitely have some players that can produce and create, and you definitely saw that today,” said Mission head coach Anders Sorensen.

But despite his club’s convincing win, or perhaps because of it, Sorensen wasn’t completely enthused with the performance.

“We didn’t have great habits, but we got away with it today,” he said. “We know that we’ll need to be better in certain areas tomorrow.”

Mission’s next challenge will be the temptation to overlook tomorrow’s opponent, the Rocky Mountain RoughRiders, in favor of setting their sights on highly ranked Belle Tire in Saturday’s pool-play finale. But Sorensen isn’t overly concerned.

“This is what we’ve prepared for all year,” he said.