Lady Raiders blank Brownsville, 8-0
WAYNESBURG — In a battle of girls soccer teams with 1-1 records, Waynesburg Central rallied around its balanced scoring and dominated the play in an 8-0 win over Brownsville Wednesday night to open Section 3-AA play.
After splitting their season opening tournament at South Fayette last weekend, the Lady Raiders (2-1, 1-0) carried the play in the offensive end and gave the visitors little space to maneuver on the field.
“It’s early and we are building that team chemistry,” Waynesburg coach Joe Kijowski said. “I love the intensity we are bringing to games and we are really possessing the ball right now. Our finishing needs some work, but the girls kept at it. They are working hard and they know what’s at stake this year.”
The teams battled to a 0-0 tie the opening 15 minutes, but Waynesburg finally cashed in on one of their scoring chances when Jillian Kijowski collected a header from Abby Virgin for the match’s first goal at 24:16.
Less than 10 minutes later, the Lady Raiders doubled their lead to 2-0 after a marker by Bailey Fudala. Kijowski assisted on the goal.
At the 9:10 mark of the first half, the Waynesburg’s offense kept the pressure on and Kaley Pell registered a goal to make it 3-0. Fudala earned the assist on the marker.
“It’s nice to get that balance scoring and not depend on one contributor,” coach Kijowski said. “When we get goals from multiple outlets, it’s only going to make us better. On offense we are just attacking and crashing to the net. We need that spread out scoring throughout the season.”
The Lady Falcons (1-2, 0-1) were outshot by a 14-1 margin in the first half
Goalkeeper Alexis Carson was tough in between the pipes for Brownsville and stopped several quality scoring chances by the home team in the first 40 minutes of play. Carson recorded 13 saves in the loss, including seven in the first half.
“We knew they had a lot of scorers on their team,” Brownsville coach Scott Menarcheck said. “We are only three games into the season and we are very young. We are learning to play with each other. We are growing every game. I really like the play of Alexis in net. She’s only a sophomore and she’s playing phenomenal for us right now.”
Madison Clayton made it 5-0 in the early moments of the second half with two quick goals. Clayton completed the hat trick with a marker at the 24:40 mark of the second half and added one more in the final six minutes of play.
Through three games this season, the junior forward has eight goals.
Later in the match, Clayton and Fudala displayed a nice give-and-go move, as Fudala recorded her second goal of the night with 30 minutes left in the second half.
Waynesburg’s Emily McCarty picked up the win in net.
“We hope to keep the pressure on teams and force teams to play more of a defensive style of game,” coach Kijowski said. “They can’t score if they don’t hold the ball. Our defense and goalkeeper has been communicating very well so far. Lauren Rose and Elle Hampson keeps things in check for us on defense.”
Brownsville continues section play at home on Saturday versus Southmoreland, while Waynesburg is idle until a home match-up with Charleroi on Monday.