VALPARAISO, Ind. – The Drake women's soccer team began its conference season on Sunday afternoon with a road trip to Valparaiso and came away with a comfortable 4-0 victory from a rain-soaked Brown Field.
The wet conditions couldn't slow down the Bulldogs as they controlled the possession battle and put the pressure on the Valpo defense over the first 45 minutes of play. Drake had a couple of opportunities early on in the period, including a shot off the crossbar from
Zoey Mahoney, but the score remained stuck at 0-0.
In the 20th minute, however, Mahoney cashed in from her crossbar opportunity from earlier and gave the Bulldogs a 1-0 lead. Mahoney's strike into the back of the net was her first goal of the season and came off a feed from
Angela Gutierrez after Gutierrez broke free off a throw in and found the racing Mahoney down the left side of the pitch.
The Bulldogs then got a little help from the Beacons in the 33rd minute with an own goal. Drake sent the ball into the box from a corner kick attempt that found the foot of
Kamryn Wray and the freshman sent a shot that hit the post and popped into the air. As the ball came back down, a Beacon defender mishandled it and it ricocheted off her leg and rolled into the net.
Drake took the 2-0 lead into the halftime break outshooting the Beacons by an 8-1 margin with Valpo's lone shot of the half being saved by Bulldog goalkeeper
Addie Ford.
As the rain continued to fall, the Bulldogs continued to score when play resumed in the second half. Drake tallied another pair of goals stretching its lead out to 4-0 which held all the way to final horn.
In the 67th minute it was
Claire Emmerich who found paydirt for her first goal of the season after finding a shooting window and letting a shot rip into the lower right corner.
Isabella Balsley set up Emmerich on the goal with a nice dropoff pass leading to the overlap run.
The final goal of the match was scored by Mahoney in the 75th minute for her second of the day, The senior sent a scorcher from well over 20 yards out nailing the upper left corner of the net after capitalizing on a turnover from the Beacons in their defensive zone caused by
Trelyn White.
"We are very pleased to start MVC play this way," Drake head coach
Lindsey Horner said. "We looked dangerous is several ways. We got in behind in transition, we created chaos on set pieces, and even on a terribly rainy day we got the ball down and combined in the final third. What I'm most proud of is that there were moments in the game we could have let them gain momentum and we managed the game and our reactions so well.
"We are thin in our backline right now so this shutout on the road is well deserved from Kam [Wray], Addy [Basler], and Alanna [Pennington] that didn't get a break today. They physically were dominant and their focus was consistent."
Drake dominated in total shots tallying 18 in the match compared to five for Valpo, but the shots on goal margin was much closer at 4-3 in favor of the Bulldogs. Mahoney and Gutierrez led the Bulldogs with three shots apiece, while a quartet of players all recorded two shots. Ford earned the shutout in goal and made three saves in the match.
The Bulldogs will remain on the road for their next match at Evansville on Saturday, Sep. 26. Kickoff against the Purple Aces is scheduled for 1 p.m.
