PHOENIX – The Mid-America Christian women's soccer team scored early and often to pick up its first win of the 2019 season by a score of 4-1 over Arizona Christian on Monday afternoon.
MACU newcomer Kelsey Henry and Kayleigh Gibson scored two goals apiece while Liz Lozano finished with a career-high three assists to lead the Evangels.
The Evangels (1-2) opened the scoring onslaught in the sixth minute when Henry received a left side cross from Lozano and chipped a shot in over the goalkeeper for her first career goal with MACU, making it a 1-0 game.
Less than a minute later, Gibson notched her second goal of the season after dribbling through three defenders on the left side, putting a shot past the keeper to give MACU the two-goal advantage just 6:16 into the match.
It didn't take long for Gibson to get her second goal of the contest as Lozano found Gibson and her shot found the net after dribbling in from the left side, extending the MACU lead to 3-0.
Mid-America Christian took its three-goal edge into the halftime break, tallying its three scores on four chances in the opening half. Despite the Firestorm outshooting the Evangels by 6-5 edge in the opening half, MACU was more efficient in their attack by putting four shots on-goal while ACU could only muster a pair of on-target shots.
It appeared the Firestorm (2-3) notched their first goal less than two minutes into the second half, but an offside call negated the score, keeping Arizona Christian scoreless.
ACU followed it up with another strong attack, but a shot by ACU's Irene Ledezma was blocked before Jennifer Starwalt made a strong save moments later in the 48th minute on a shot by Natalie Goeth to thwart the Firestorm's push.
Two minutes later, the Evangels added to their lead when Lozano found Henry in the middle of the goal box on a cross from the right side corner and her kick found the left side of the net, stretching the Mid-America Christian edge to four.
Starwalt and the MACU defense made life difficult for the ACU attack throughout the half as the junior keeper made several great saves throughout the period.
However, the Firestorm were able to break through in the 78th minute when a handball was called on a MACU defender inside the box, setting up a penalty kick for ACU's Ledezma. Her free kick was able to find the top left corner of the goal, trimming the Evangels lead to 4-1.
The Mid-America Christian limited ACU to just one more shot on-goal in the final 12 minutes to close out with the victory.
Despite Arizona Christian outshooting MACU by a 21-12 margin in the match, the Firestorm were only able to place eight shots on-goal. Even though the Evangels' chances were limited to just eight shots on-goal, Mid-America Christian was able to take advantage of its opportunities by scoring on half of their shots on-goal.
Starwalt finished the match with a season-high seven saves while conceding just one goal in 90 minutes of action.
The Evangels will close out their three-match road swing on Saturday, Sept. 7 with a 1 p.m. match at Sterling College in Sterling, Kan.
