By: Laura Chapman
Assistant Sports Information Director
chapmal@juniata.edu • juniatasports.net
Phot: Jennifer Jones
HUNTINGDON, Pa. – Three first half goals helped lift Juniata College women's soccer over Westminster College for the eighth win of the season. The win also marked the 100th for head coach Scott McKenzie in his tenure at Juniata.
"That mile stone is special for every program," said McKenzie. "It really is a program mile stone. I couldn't have picked a better group to happen with than this one."
The Eagles kick started the match from the first whitle, launching two shots and earning two corner kicks inside of 10 minutes. Despite the intense pressure from Juniata, Westminster managed to keep the Eagles off the scoreboard until the 35th minute. Sophomore Emily Green (Marrietta, Pa./Donegal) headed home a cross from junior Lauren Liacouras (Collegeville, Pa./Perkiomen Valley) to put Juniata up 1-0.
Less than three minutes later, senior Alicia Snyder (Jonestown, Pa./Northern Lebanon) scored her third goal of the year when she nailed a shot to the upper corner for a 2-0 Juniata lead. Snyder struck again in the 42nd minute when she tapped in a pass from sophomore Sarah Rhodes (Bloomfield, N.Y./Bloomfield Central) to give the Eagles a comfortable three-goal lead.
"Alicia played a heck of a game today," said McKenzie. "Part of why she gets the spaces she does is because people are generally looking at Paula Pryor. Paula had a great game. Any time we had the ball you could hear everyone on the Westminster bench yelling about number 20. When that happens we say fine, get on 20 let me introduce you to Alicia, or Emily Green. We're lucky enough to have people that can turn on their threat if Paula is marked out of the game. Alicia knows then that it's her job to set up and Emily knows and Michaela knows. Our system and the way it fits our team so well was in evidence today."
The second half continued in similar dominant fashion with the Eagles launching nine of their 21 total shots in the second 45 minutes of the match. Westminster earned four corner kicks in the half, but the Juniata defense shut down all attempts at a comeback.
"We played a lot of depth in the second half," said McKenzie. "We got players who haven't been getting time recently some very important minutes. Later in the season we call upon them for games that are still in question and they now have some good minutes in them and some very valuable experience."
Juniata earned its fifth team shutout of the season and improved to 8-2 on the year.
"The one thing I take directly from this game is the total commitment by this team to defend and keep a clean sheet," added McKenzie. "When you have new players in the game you struggle to keep a rhythm. What we're able to take from today, even through all kinds of personnel upheaval, is that they were able to keep, and find, that balance no matter who was on the field. We didn't score in the second half, but we also didn't give up any goals."
The Eagles are next in action at home this Saturday, Oct. 5th, at 1 p.m. when they face McDaniel College.
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