Alix Hailey battles for the ball near midfield in the first half of the contest. Photo by John McHale/ladailypost.com
Senior Elsa Gram battles for control near the topper goal in the second period. Photo by John McHale/ladailypost.com
Jennifer Paige brings the ball down the left side through traffic in the second period. Photo by John McHale/ladailypost.com
By RJ Montaño, Sports Editor
Los Alamos Daily Post
rjmontano@ladailypost.com
It didn’t take very long to see the balanced attack and athleticism of the Los Alamos Hilltoppers Girls Soccer team (record: 1-0) in a 10-0 shutout of the Santa Fe Demons (0-1). ‘Score early, score often’ was the message of Saturday’s game.
Junior Alix Hailey broke the scoring seal of the season with a break-away goal at the 4:17 mark of the game.
“It felt pretty awesome,” Hailey said of scoring the first goal of the season.
She would add another goal off a corner kick two minutes later. Hailey finished the game with a hat-trick (3 goals) on the day.
“All the goals felt pretty good. We all contributed to and had great passing. It was a good start to the season,” Hailey said.
In all, seven different Hilltoppers scored in the game. The ‘Toppers were the aggressors throughout the match, netting goals in from several looks.
“I liked our pace for most of the game. I liked that we scored on a lot of different types of shots. And I liked that a lot of people scored in the game,” Coach Ann Cernicek said.
Senior Elsa Gram added the third goal of the day for the ‘Toppers at the 13:23 mark off a cleared ball by Demons goalkeeper Janee Martinez. Four minutes later, at 17:22 in the match, junior Anna Matuszak scored off an assist by fellow junior Peyton Hobbs, making the score 4-0 and allowing Cernicek to substitute several starters out of the game.
“Everyone’s been working really hard in practice and we’ve been looking at a variety of combinations to see what works against what type of team, and we had a great opportunity to try a lot of things today which will play well for us down the road,” Coach Cernicek said of getting her team plenty of minutes of playing time.
Junior Alissia Haagenstad would close out the first half netting a goal right before the halftime whistle.
It was much of the same in the second half as the ‘Toppers would score quickly on a free kick goal by senior Jaci Linn and set play goal by junior Katie Hopkins making it 7-0 at the 42:17 mark.
The ‘Toppers finished the game in the 73rd minute after goals by senior Perla Terrazas, Hailey, and Gram put them up 10-0.
“We’ve got lots of things we can do better, but that comes with time. To have a game like this with this kind of effort out of the gates is huge,” Coach Cernicek said.
The Hilltoppers have a quick turn-around as they play the Bosque Bobcats at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 22, in Albuquerque.
SCORING: 4:17 A. Hailey; 6:30 A. Hailey; 13:23 E. Gram; 17:22 A. Matuszak; 38:00 A. Haagenstad; 42:17 J. Linn; 46:52 K. Hopkins; 60:59 P. Terrazas; 67:49 A. Hailey; 73:00 E. Gram.
Vianey Terrazas takes control of the ball. Photo by John McHale/ladailypost.com
Alix Hailey kicks the ball past the Demon goalie, Janney Martinez for one of her 3 goals of the game. Photo by John McHale/ladailypost.com
Senior Caption Jaci Linn heads the ball in demon territory in the first period. Photo by John McHale/ladailypost.com
Elsa Gram kicks the ball for a goal as Katie Hopkins blocks a Demon player. Photo by John McHale/ladailypost.com
Anna Rose Matuszak gets a foot on the ball near the Demon goal in the second period. Photo by John McHale/ladailypost.com
