SURPRISE, Ariz. - Eleven goals, ten different goal scorers. That is how the OUAZ Women's Soccer team opened up the 2019 season as they routed the Park Buccaneers 11-0 on Saturday night. The Spirit start the season at 1-0, and Park drops to 1-1.
Among the ten players to find the back of the net was
Paige Murray-Hernandez, who is expected to take on a bigger offensive role since the departure of
Sydnee Busby. Spirit head coach
Skelly Kellar was impressed by her performance on Saturday.
"She could do whatever she wanted with the ball tonight," Kellar said. "Her passing is quality. She scored the first goal to get us going."
OUAZ put up 35 shots on goal and 55 shot attempts, but that pace does not look to continue. The Spirit face a tougher challenge next Thursday when they take on Southwest (N.M.). Kellar was able to get his 15 new players into the season opener, and he is hoping that it will continue next week.
"Today was a good intro for a lot of our young girls," Kellar said. "So it was important to have a cohesive feel, and going into the next game hopefully we can ride the momentum a little bit."
Five freshmen (
Logan Maszton,
Lola Ruvalcaba,
Haley Howard,
Grace Green,
Cassidi Calzaretta) scored in their collegiate debut. The goals came in bunches as well, as the Spirit had two separate 20-minute stretches where they scored four and six goals, respectively, in those stretches.
While the offense was clicking, arguably the most impressive stat is the zero shot attempts the Spirit allowed.
Krysten Caballero picked up her second career clean sheet.
Next up OUAZ takes on Southwest on Thursday, August 22. First touch is set for 5:30 p.m. from Spirit Field. Â
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