Lady Jackets Crush Crusaders for Second Straight Win (Sept. 6, 2003)

BILLINGS, MT – The MSU Billings women’s soccer team won its second straight game, defeating Northwest Nazarene 4-0 after scoring four goals in a span of just over five minutes Saturday.  The Yellowjackets improve to 2-0-1 and haven’t allowed a goal this season.  NNU falls to 2-2.

“We were unlucky in our first games of the year that we didn’t score more goals,” said head coach Don Trentham.  “It just all came at once today.  Our defense is doing the work and making it easy for our goalkeepers and our offense.  And when we need a big save, we’re getting it from our keepers.”

Ally Taylor (Fr., Ojai, CA) opened the scoring with an unassisted goal at 20:27.  After winning a battle for a loose ball in the middle of the field, she beat her defender to the box and scored her second goal of the year from 15 yards out. 

Stephanie Clark (Jr., Tualatin, OR) followed with an unassisted goal at 23:02 after an NNU was called for a foul.  Clark’s free kick sailed over the outstretched arm of the goalkeeper for a 2-0 lead.  It was Clark’s first goal of the season. 

Just 1:07 later, Margot Merrill-Johnson (Jr., Salt Lake City) scored the first of two goals in the game when she headed Ally Taylor’s corner kick in at 24:09.  Merrill-Johnson scored her second goal of the game and third of the season at 25:36 when she took a cross from Heidi Robertson (Sr., Great Falls, MT) and got off a quick shot from about 20 yards in front of the net.

“We scored off two set pieces today,” added Trentham.  “The corner kick was something we talked about before the game.  It was nice to see the girls execute on stuff we work on quite a bit.”

The win was the first for the Yellowjackets over a West Region opponent in the program’s history.  Merrill-Johnson’s two goals also moved her into third place in school history for goals scored (12) and points scored (27).  Mandy Reed (Sr., Denver, CO) passed current assistant coach Vicky McCarthy for second place all time with 52 games started.

The Yellowjackets will put their early season success to the test next week when they travel to Washington for three games.  They will face Central Washington next Thursday before playing regionally ranked Seattle University (4^th) on Saturday and Seattle Pacific (7^th) on Monday.

“Starting the season this well is nice,” said Trentham.  “Getting that first West Region win was big, but the real test will come this week.  The thing in this region is you have to be a strong defensive team.  We haven’t been scored on in three games, so we’ll see how that carries over to these games against ranked opponents.”