Grace explodes for nine goals
WINONA LAKE, Ind. – On a special night for Grace’s women’s soccer team, the Lady Lancers pummeled Hannibal-LaGrange 9-0 on Saturday.
Eight players scored a goal for Grace, including two from Flavia Faria and the game winner from Emma Neahusan.
Grace’s players, in their new white and black home uniforms, also wore purple accents in their attire for the match. Purple, which is the symbolic color of pancreatic cancer, signified support of Neahusan who lost her mother Rhonda to pancreatic cancer earlier this year.
The packed crowd at 1st Source Bank Field gave Neahusan an electrified applause when she scored the game-winning goal in the 15th minute. Faria picked out Neahusan at the top of the 18-yard box, and Neahusan curled her shot into the top-left corner of the net.
Less than four minutes later, Faria doubled Grace’s lead. Faria, who had another goal disallowed shortly before due to offsides, finished off a nifty play in the box to beat a defender and slice her shot past the goalkeeper.
Grace scored two more goals before halftime. Kristen Bellinger made a perfect leading pass to Liz Van Wormer, and Van Wormer finished her shot around the charging goalkeeper in the 25th minute.
Autumn Raulerson tacked on her first collegiate goal six minutes before halftime after an assist from Clair Snodgrass.
Grace went into halftime with a 4-0 lead, taking 31 shots while holding the Trojans (0-1) to zero attempts.
Two minutes into the half, Faria scored her second goal of the contest which Van Wormer assisted.
Shortly afterward, Corinne Villalobos got on the scoresheet when she finished a connecting pass in the box from Bellinger in the 50th minute.
In the 63rd minute, Snodgrass earned her first collegiate goal after scrapping her way past the defense and squeezing in a goal from a tight angle.
At the 71:23 mark, Jenni Phillips added the first goal of her Lady Lancer career, and Shelby Fort finished off the game’s scoring after a crafty assist by Liz Aalbue.
“The women put in two good trainings days and as expected made very good adjustments. This group consistently works to be more intelligent and has a deep hunger to learn,” said Grace head coach Michael Voss. “The biggest difference tonight was that their joy was evident. They improved their quality of shot selection and maintained high tempo for movement. The finishing produced was a direct result. Something unlocked in them this evening. They worked as a team and are becoming more fluid.”
Faria finished with two goals and an assist, and Van Wormer, Raulerson and Snodgrass each had one goal and one assist. Bellinger had two of Grace’s nine assists on the evening.
The Lady Lancers embark for the West Coast next week to play a pair of matches in California against No. 21 Kansas Wesleyan and No. 19 Embry-Riddle.