By Kevin Kyle
Hanna Schimmer opened the scoring for the visitors, and Mia Mullenmeister added a pair of goals as the Sioux Falls City Football Club claimed a 3-1 victory over Rochester FC Thursday evening at Rochester Community & Technical College in Rochester, MN.
With the victory, City improves to 2-0-1 (6 pts.) in the Central Conference Heartland Division of the USL W, while RFC falls to 2-0-2 (6 pts.) on the season.
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It felt good,” said Mullenmeister of her brace. “It was finally nice to put some in the back of the net, but like coach said, we have to work more on finishing our chances. Looking forward, we can definitely improve on that.
“Hanna’s goal gave us a sigh of relief, and after that it felt calmer, and we were able to finish more.”
A sigh indeed, as a red card shown to RFC defender Mariana Brito in the 28th minute should have opened up the field for the visitors to exploit, create scoring opportunities and… finish those chances. Unfortunately for City, its 11 first-half shots went begging. And despite ending the half on the front foot, City appeared frustrated at the interval.
“I think it’s still a technical thing,” said SFCFC Sporting Director Joe DeMay. “You tend to want to look up like a golfer who looks to see where it’s going before making contact with the ball. That misaligns your whole body. The ball is moving and when you look up, you’re relying on your brain to know where the ball has moved. It’s just a matter of taking a peek at the goal, understanding where you want to go, locking back in on the ball and striking the part of the ball you want with the part of your foot you want. It’s a pretty basic thing, but finishing can be streaky too. It’s good we’re creating the chances, and hopefully we’ll progress to the mean.”
Eleven minutes after the restart, City broke the scoreless deadlock.
Picking off an errant pass from SFC goalkeeper Emma Knack, Schimmer corralled the ball and worked her magic.
“It was served right to me by the keeper; I took it, cut outside, cut back in and back out again before hitting a right-footed shot to the upper 90 to her left side,” said Schimmer. “Putting that first goal in gave everybody that umph to keep going and rise up – after our many chances in the first half.”
As is often the case, goals lead to more and more opportunities.
A mere 80 seconds after Schimmer’s rocket inside the angle, striker Hailee Christensen fed her front-line partner with a precision set-up pass. Mullenmeister finished the play with zeal, putting the visitors on top 2-0 with 28 minutes to play.
At that point, City’s second victory of the 2025 campaign appeared to be well in hand – especially considering RFC was a player down. However, despite the lack of numbers, Rochester pulled a goal back – capitalizing on a defensive miscue through the fight, fancy footwork and finish of Zerina Marchovic.
“It just shows, you can’t let the bar down, you have to keep raising it and keep the intensity high,” said City veteran Lulu Moreno. “The mistake happened, but we move on.”
Rochester’s tally against the run of play seemed to shake the visitors up, and with 22 minutes remaining in the Central Conference clash, City pressed on. Shots steered toward Knack were fast and furious, as substitutes Nadja Meite and Avery Korsching joined Mullenmeister in the onslaught. The oppressing offensive push eventually paid dividends on 79 minutes.
Taking on RFC’s Riley Schneider on the right flank, Korsching nutmegged the left outside back, pushed the ball down to the endline and drove a sharp, head-height cross toward Mullenmeister – six yards from goal. Last season’s Offensive Player of the Year in the WPSL made no mistake, acutely directing the ball to the opposite side of the net with a forceful header to give City a 3-1 lead with 11 minutes remaining in the tilt. 
“I think we were too relaxed in the moment,” said DeMay of Rochester’s tally. “But we were able to get that two-goal lead back through a great nutmeg and cross to Mia’s head to restore the cushion.”
In all, City totaled 22 shots in the contest to RFC’s six. However, a mere seven of City’s efforts were on target, as nerves and focus hindered execution of the final stroke.
“The finishing wasn’t that great, not up to City standards, and I felt a lot of nerves going around,” said Moreno. “After a while, those who finished did their job and put the ball away. Going into the next game we need to focus in on driving through and not focusing on where the goal is, just focusing in on our talent. Like I told Hanna at one point, ‘don’t be nervous, if mistakes happen, they happen – do you, be you, show yourself. You’re here for a reason, show why you’re here.’ And she went out and scored a goal, which gave her confidence. Maybe up top they lacked a little confidence tonight, but as the game progressed, they started to find it – little by little.”
The upside of totaling 22 shots is City created 22 opportunities, 11 in each half.
Midfielders Mia Bosch, Madie Donovan and Mali Van Meeteren each had a strike or two in the opening stanza, while Mullenmeister and Schimmer also sent the ball goalward. We’ll never know if Christensen would have converted on her breakaway, as she was dragged down by Brito. The former fed Donovan for a shot that rang off the right post moments after City gained it numerical advantage.
Though frustrated by its finishing woes, City still managed to claim three points and will go into Sunday’s home opener against winless RKC, at Bob Young Stadium in Sioux Falls, with blossoming confidence.
“I’m so excited,” said Schimmer. “I’m really hoping my family can make it, come out and support us in our first home game.”
Having watched the club dismantle the Sioux City Sol in a pre-season friendly May 15 in Sioux Falls, an eager City fanbase will be poised to see its team go for a third consecutive USL W victory.
“We want to show up for the community,” said Moreno. “I feel like if everyone stays on the same page, plays the game WE play, to the standard we set on Day 1, we’ll put on a good show for them. We must be 100 percent all in, mentally and physically, and just do our part.”
SCFC 0 3 – 3
RFC 0 1 – 1