The River Falls Wildcats played two games at the D.C. Everest invite this week, first tying Appleton West 3-3 on Friday and then losing to Notre Dame on Saturday 2-1.

The season has been sort of uneven yet positive for the perennial contenders.

Through the first six games, they were 2-2-2. However, they also didn’t lose a game from April 11 until this past Saturday, almost a six-week stretch where they went an unfortunate 6-0-5. So, although they weren’t losing games, this tells the story of why they’re on the outside looking in at a possible Big Rivers Championship.

While there is still a path to winning the conference entering the final week of play, it is an uphill battle requiring not only winning both of their remaining games but also needing first place New Richmond to lose both of theirs. It’s possible, but Head Coach Charles Conley isn’t expecting it.

“Currently, we're in second place, three points behind New Richmond. If they were to lose to Memorial on Monday and then Thursday to Hudson, and we were to win both, we could win conference. It's a tall task. I think we'll have a tough time winning both those games, and I also don't see New Richmond losing to both those teams,” Conley said. “We tied New Richmond again last week, which hurt because both times that we’ve tied them, we've outplayed them,”

Coach Conley said their biggest strength continues to be their defense; the problem has been putting points on the board.  

“We’re just having a tough time scoring offensively. We have senior Kraly Walker who's going to play college, but the rest of our girls are fairly young, and putting that piece together has been a challenge for us,” Conley said. “It's not that we're not creating opportunities, it's that we're not finishing them when they are created. If we can try to be a little more ready in the moment, finish and make their goalies work a little bit, I think we'll be okay.”

If the Wildcats can work on making those plays in the moment and capitalize on their opportunities, Conley says he doesn't see any reason why they can’t find themselves heading to Milwaukee in the middle of June for the state tournament.

“We just had a stretch of five and a half games of shutout soccer,” Conley said. “I think our defense is one of the best, if not the best in the section, so they're going to keep us in every game. Saturday was our first loss in six weeks or something, so we're capable, it's just a matter of putting it all together and playing our best here at the end.”

With that end of the regular season in sight, the playoff seeding meeting happened on Sunday, with the Wildcats drawing the two-seed. This means that they’ll play Altoona on Tuesday next week at home in the first round, and then most likely host Marshfield, the three-seed, on Saturday.

“Again, we have the two ties with New Richmond. A victory would have given us the one-seed, but it is what it is. By virtue of their wins over Hudson and Memorial, and our loss and tie to those two teams, they got the one-seed,” Conley said. “If we win both games next week, we could face off against New Richmond one final time the following Thursday in the sectional semifinals at their place, and that'll be a battle. Both games we've played them, we've outplayed them in so many facets, but again, if we don't put the ball in the net, things can happen.”

Looking back to last year, the Wildcats had three straight ties in the postseason, most notable of these was winning in a shootout in the sectional semifinal.

“This time of year, anybody can beat anybody, but we're confident with how we played all three teams that we feel like are going to be in the Final Four,” Conley said. “If we can figure out our scoring, we have just as good a chance as anybody to get through the sectionals.”

The Wildcats still have two games to play before that postseason gauntlet, though, as well as an outside shot at a BRC Championship. First up is the Hudson Raiders on Tuesday night at 7 p.m., then they finish the regular season on Thursday with a game against Eau Claire Memorial at 5 p.m.