Somebody was going home with their first win.

The Viroqua Blackhawks and Medford Red Raiders, both 0-7 on the season, met Friday night at Simek Recreation Center in Medford. It was small town hockey on display as the two teams with the smallest rosters, Medford-17 and Viroqua -13, raced for their first victory.

The games early returns showed the Red Raiders with a territorial advantage, outshooting the Blackhawks 6-2. A Medford penalty at 6:08 seemed to flip the momentum and at 9:54 Viroqua freshman Grace Johnson raced to a loose puck inside the Medford blueline stepped to the net and laced a wrist shot past Chloe Pipkorn for her first high school goal. Pipkorn made several saves in the waning minutes of the period to keep the score at 1-0. Viroqua ended the period outshooting Medford 12-8.

With a full moon hovering outside, period two took on the madness of the lunar folklore. The rather mild first period erupted into a battle of wolfpacks attacking each net and lighting up the scoreboard with seven goals. Another Viroqua freshman, Penny Ugo, started the onslaught with a breakaway goal to put the Blackhawks ahead 2-0. “Good overall play by our freshmen tonight,” said head coach Paul Severson after the game.

Moments later Charlie Brudos nearly made it 3-0 with another breakaway, but Pipkorn denied the junior with a pad save.

One of the game’s interesting inside battles was between Viroqua defenseman Brenna Rogers and sharp shooting forward Zayleah Leonhardt. When they were on the ice at the same time, they most often found each other. Leonhardt is never far from the net in the offensive zone and Rogers’s net front play is aggressive and attentive. It took the Medford senior a while to heat up, but at 5:52 she stepped above the Viroqua goal line and picked the top short side corner and put the Red Raiders on the board. Three minutes later Leonhardt won a stick battle in the high slot, shifted to her backhand and tied the game at 2-2. She was far from done.

It was Rogers turn next. The sophomore did her best Bobby Orr imitation, slicing her way through the Red Raiders and finishing with a wrist shot to put Viroqua back on top 3-2.  Leonhardt answered with her third goal of the game, when she top-shelfed a puck that deflected off teammate Kendra Krueger’s skate and found its way to the blade of Leonhardt’s stick. Tie game.

Kylie Unseth put the Blackhawks back up 4-3 on a backdoor goal that Penny Ugo started with a pass from behind the net. With 18 seconds remaining in the period, Leonhardt and Rogers tangled as Leonhardt tried to bull her way to the net. Rogers drew a tripping penalty and eight seconds later Leonhardt buried a rebound, her team leading 12th goal, and the wild second period closed, tied at four.

The Blackhawks would regain the lead one more time early in period three on another length of the ice rush by Rogers, finishing it with her fifth goal of the season. Leonhardt continued to hover near the Viroqua net, but senior Viroqua netminder Adey Oliver shut the door on her, finishing with 28 saves. With 90 seconds remaining, Oliver poke-checked Leonhardt who was about to slide past her and get a look at an open net.

It wasn’t until 16:47 that the Viroqua bench was certain they had secured their first win. Taking a face-off in their own end, center Amelia Olson pushed the puck forward and then sent it across the blueline. Charlie Brudos earned the blue-collar award by outskating the Medford defense, and putting a perfect pass to Unseth who tapped it into the empty net as Brudos crashed into the end boards.

“Charlie had a great assist on the empty netter,” said Severson.

Red Raiders goalie Chloe Pipkorn left the ice late in the game with what appeared to be a minor injury, and after a short delay returned. She finished with 31 saves.

A year ago, Viroqua, now 1-7, notched their first win on January 17th. They will travel to Eagle River on Saturday to face the 2-7-1 Eagles who dropped a 3-1 decision to Badger Lightning (2-4-1) on Friday. The Lightning will swap places and meet the Red Raiders (0-8) today in Medford.

• Three Stars of the Game: 1-Rogers, 2-Leonhardt, 3-Oliver
• Blue Collar: M-Kujawa, V-Brudos