It’s a game Albert Lea girls’ soccer head coach Rick Barnhill dreads the most every season, but the Tigers continued to find a way to win Saturday following homecoming against Mankato Loyola.

This time it took a span of five minutes during the first half to give Albert Lea a victory as Ariel Christensen scored a natural hat trick to lead the Tigers to a 3-0 win.

“It’s a game you just try to survive because you know they’re going to be out late,” Barnhill said. “It’s going to be a lot of distractions all Friday night.”

Christensen admitted she was tired entering the Saturday contest, but it actually improved the quality of her play.

“I feel like when I’m tired I don’t think about it so much and it just comes to me,” said Christensen, who tallied her 12th, 13th, and 14th goals of the season.

Christensen scored her first goal at the 24-minute mark and 3 minutes later she tallied her second on an assist from Sophie Miller. She notched her third goal in the 29th minute on an assist from Anna Anderson.

The Tigers outshot Loyola 34-4 in the game.

Albert Lea got its fifth shutout of the season, but it wasn’t a game nearly to the level the team played Thursday when it tied Owatonna 0-0 in Owatonna.

“I’m still waiting for that one really, really complete game where we put both sides of the game together,” Barnhill said.

The Tigers host Faribault Tuesday.