NORTH NEWTON, Kan. – The 2018 campaign got underway for the Mid-America Christian University women's soccer team on Saturday night when the Evangels headed north to do battle with the Bethel College (Kan.) Threshers. The Evangels returned seven starters to the lineup from 2017, and they controlled the play all night long.

MACU (1-0) out-shot Bethel (0-1) 21-4 in the match, including 15-1 in shots on goal, and MACU cruised to a 2-0 win to open the campaign.

Bethel actually recorded the first shot of the match in the fifth minute, but MACU clamped down on the Threshers from there. MACU notched the last seven shots of the first half, five of which were on goal, but the Evangels were unable to find the back of the net, and at the break, the match remained scoreless.

In the 51^st minute, MACU broke through. Brittney Stephens took a throw-in for MACU, and after receiving the ball back, she chipped a pass across the top of the box to Liz Lazano. Lazano looped a header over the outstretched arms of Bethel goalkeeper Ashton Brown to give MACU the 1-0 lead. Just over five minutes later, Casey Riley fired a pass forward from just outside her own penalty area that found the feet of Stephens. Stephens carried the ball in on a breakaway from 40 yards out, slotting home her first goal of the season in the low right corner, and in the process doubling the MACU advantage.

That was more than enough for a MACU defense, which stifled every attack from the Threshers. The Evangels did not concede a corner kick to Bethel until the 81^st minute, when a corner led to Bethel's only shot on goal of the game. Jennifer Starwalt was equal to the task, and the Evangels closed out the season opening blanking, taking a 2-0 win.

Starwalt (1-0) made only one save in earning the win and her seventh career shutout. Brown (0-1) made 13 saves in the match to keep her team in the game, but in the end, it was not enough. Stephens had a 3-point night before exiting in the 58^th minute, Lazano scored the first goal of her MACU career, and Riley added her first assist of the season.

MACU will return to action again one week from Saturday, opening a trip to the Rocky Mountain College Labor Day Classic. The Evangels will play the Argos (0-0) on Saturday at 2 p.m., and on Labor Day, they will take on the host Battlin' Bears (0-0) at Noon.