Rain was hitting the Wright City girls all game on Monday in Mexico.

The ball wasn’t hitting the back of the next for a little more than 40 minutes for the Lady Wildcats, but that changed when Paige Kirn scored a goal five minutes into the second half, and then another, then another and finally one more. Kirn scored a career-high four goals to lead Wright City to a 4-2 comeback victory against district opponent Mexico.

Mexico was ahead at halftime 2-0 following two goals from Claire Hudson while Kirn on the other side was recovering from a down game in Wright City’s 2-1 overtime debut loss to St. Louis Christian. Before Monday, the junior Kirn said she didn’t even have a hat trick, let alone four goals in a game.

“To be able to come out, even with the weather, it was good to get those goals,” Kirn said. “The balls from my teammates were just great, and I was happy to be able to celebrate with them.”

Head coach Jacob Wallace said Kirn thought she didn’t have a good first game as Wallace said the opportunities weren’t as numerous for Kirn against St. Louis Christian. He said Kirn exploding in the second half is what she and the Lady Wildcats needed.

“She was a little down on herself after Thursday’s game,” Wallace said. “For her to have this type of game, it’s super exciting to see. She’s been a super good leader for us all year as she’s one of our captains. It couldn’t have happened for a better person.”

Kirn dribbled around some tight defense deployed by Mexico to score her first goal at the 45th minute. Within the first 10 minutes of the second half, the game was tied at 2. In the 20 minutes after that, Kirn scored on a penalty kick after being taken down while handling the ball and then put in another goal off a rebound.

Wallace said Kirn plays club soccer in the offseason so it isn’t shocking to see her maneuver with seemingly little effort.

“Out of all the girls we have, she’s probably up there with the most playing experience,” Wallace said. “It shows, and it’s really nice to have her leadership and her ability to teach some of these things to some of the younger girls.”

Wright City had five straight victories against Mexico going into Monday. Wallace said he knows the Lady Bulldogs have had rough seasons the past few years, but he didn’t want the Lady Wildcats to overlook this new Mexico group.

Wallace said that was clear when Wright City was down at halftime, and he just “laid down the gauntlet” to challenge his girls to bounce back quickly. He saw a more aggressive team within the first 10 minutes of the second half.

“We do this thing where we set expectations before the game like, ‘Oh, we played this team last year’ and ‘This is the way they were last year,’” Wallace said. “I told them, ‘This is a new group of girls and it’s a new team every year, so you have to come and set the tone.’”

“We had a slow start, but it was really nice to see the energy on the bench, even with the weather conditions,” Kirn said. “Starting off down going into the second half, we were ready for it. It was super exciting to see the energy come back when we got that first goal.”

That’s not to say Wright City didn’t have its chances as it had a couple close calls near the net in the first half and then added a few more in the second half, including a pair of balls that bounced off the post. Wallace said the Lady Wildcats persisted for a more productive second half.

“If we can’t score on a corner, I’m going to lose my mind at some point this year,” Wallace said, jokingly. “That’s another thing Paige was doing really well is giving us some really nice balls in front of the goal. It was just bounce across the goal face, and we wouldn’t get any touches at all. It was nice to see them go in the net in the second half for sure.”

Wright City has its first victory and will be looking another at 5 p.m. April 4 at Christian Fellowship in Columbia.

“I told them it was the best kind of victory you could have gotten,” Wallace said. “The marks of really good teams are ones that can get done and still battle back and still find a way to win. With the conditions we were in, it would have been easy to just be like, ‘Whatever, pack it in.’ The fact that they fought is super exciting and encouraging.”