W Soccer 09.26.18
Sports

Women’s Soccer Blows Past Saint Peter’s, 9-0

Women’s soccer put their first Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) victory of the season in the books on Saturday night with a dominating 9-0 offensive outpour over Saint Peter’s at Hesse Field on The Great Lawn.

“This was a terrific team performance tonight,” said Head Coach Krissy Turner after her milestone 250th career win. “Unselfish play all over the field created numerous scoring chances for us.”

It was junior forward Madie Gibson who led the charge yet again for the Hawks with two goals, extending her streak against conference foe Saint Peter’s to a perfect three for three with four goals in three games. Gibson finished the night with five points to make it an immense 65 for her career, with 22 goals and 21 assists. Her performance earned her MAAC Offensive Player of the Week honors.

Both of Gibson’s goals came in the first half along with two more from junior midfielder Lexie Palladino in the span of just two minutes. Freshman forward A’Liah Moore scored her first career goal with an overhead kick in the 41st minute as the ball was bouncing in the box to help give the Blue and White an insurmountable 5-0 advantage going into halftime. For Palladino, Saturday’s outburst brought her season total to four goals and nine points. She now sits at eight goals and 22 points for her career.

Senior forward Alli DeLuca kept the momentum rolling in the second half with her fourth goal of the season from 20 yards out off of an assist from junior midfielder Esther Wellman. Wellman kept her big night going with her first goal of the season in the 80th minute to extend Monmouth’s lead to eight goals.

Moore closed out Monmouth’s biggest victory of the season with her second goal of the night five minutes later en route to a MAAC Rookie of the Week award. The forward’s late tally made it a 9-0 final for the Hawks; their largest margin of victory since 2005 when they blanked Saint Peter’s by the same score.

The Hawks dominance was all over the field on Saturday as they outshot the Peacocks 30-4 on the night and 18-1 in shots on goal. Monmouth also took 15 corner kicks while holding Saint Peter’s without one for the entire game.

Junior goalkeeper Amanda Knaub only had to make one save on the night to preserve Monmouth’s lead as she was pulled to rest at halftime with a 5-0 advantage. It was graduate goalkeeper Laura Dramis who came in for Knaub, but she didn’t have to make a single save in the appearance.

The triumph improves Monmouth’s record to 6-3-1 on the year and 1-1-0 in MAAC play, while the Peacocks dropped to 1-7 and 1-1 in conference games.

“We had a great response from the group all week and it resulted in a dominating win,” said Turner.

Monmouth will continue their MAAC schedule on the road when they travel to Riverdale, New York to face Manhattan tonight.

Manhattan has struggled so far this season with just one win and a 1-4-2 record overall. The Jaspers drew with Fairfield in their first conference match on Sept. 14 and were defeated by Canisius last weekend.

The rematch of last season’s MAAC Championship between Monmouth and Manhattan will kick off at 7:00 p.m. Wednesday night.

PHOTO COURTESY of Monmouth Athletics