Tornell highlighted how his entire team played as a cohesive unit to control the game. The Cougars had six different goal scorers, dominated in the midfield and goalie Kate Baell made four saves to help quiet the Storm’s attack.

A selfless performance like this is what Tornell expects to see from his team all season.

“That’s our goal all season is to be a team,” Tornell said. “It doesn’t matter who scores the goals for us, it’s all about team first and me second. That’s our motto for the year and we’re going to take it all the way. “

It can be easier to not care about who scores the goals when there’s so many to go around for the Cougars. Sivanna O’Brien and Gabby Bouman each scored four on Friday while Christina Swirtz added a hat trick of her own. Just three games into the season, O’Brien and Bouman have each reached the double digits for goals this season, with 10 and 12 respectively. Emily Moes leads the team with 14, as she added two against the Storm.

Bouman, who added an assist to finish with five points, gave credit to the midfield for letting the attack shine tonight.

“It’s really, really satisfying to win those draws and to be able to back them up when they’re coming back down so we can get on offense really quick,” she said. 

Bouman and Tornell were both quick to praise Tori Tschida, who dominated draws the entire game.

“Tori Tschida on the draw is huge,” Tornell said. “We controlled the ball, and when you control the ball, you control the game, and that was huge for us.”

On top of her work in the circle, Tschia added two goals and two assists.

Allie Welder scored two of the Storm’s (3-1, 1-0) three goals. Chanhassen also got a good performance from Katie Colleran in net, as she made all nine of her saves in the first half.

It was a stellar performance from the Cougars (3-0, 1-0) against a top team, but Tornell won’t let his team get complacent with a majority of the season yet to be played.

“We’re never satisfied and we still have work to do and there’s still things we can still improve,” he said. “Nothing’s over, nothing’s set; this is game three for us and we still have a long way to go.”