FOREST CITY, Iowa – The Dawgs swarmed early on the new full GPAC member Waldorf in an 8-0 route in Forest City. Concordia University, Nebraska Women’s Soccer outshot the Warriors (22-2) in a rude welcome to the conference. Taylor Slaymaker and Olivia Pyle scored the first goals of their career in the road win over WU.
After another conference victory, the Bulldogs have won five in a row (5-3) in conference play and have an 8-5-1 overall record.
“The focus today was going to be about our performance”, said Head Coach Nick Smith. “We largely had a good game here tonight. We had so many different players have goals and assists. It was big to give minutes to some players who have earned the time. We have been building all season long. We are a team that has tried to stay consistent with the message. We are starting to see rewards come from that in results.”
Coach Smith’s squad has been on a heater in the past five contests following an 0-3 start to the conference. After a 15 minutes of silence from the offenses, CUNE broke out scoring four goals in the first frame. Savannah Andrews made first noise off a penalty and a goal off her body from a feed via Elena Ruiz.
Perhaps, the most impressive score came from Slaymaker with a header goal off a header assist from Mirarosa Gyllenswan. Sadie Mares crushed the free kick inside the box and after two hits off the noggin, the Dawgs were up three in the 30th minute.
Concordia would score one more in the half, and two more to get ahead 6-0 in the second frame. Senna McMullen found a seam down the near side and kicked through a rolling cross to sophomore Pyle. The Blaine, Minn., native perfectly timed a swinging kick in the waning minutes of the contest.
“It was awesome”, said Coach Smith. “We (Slaymaker & Smith) had talked about trying to get centerbacks to score for us, particularly on set pieces. The next game she was able to respond and get herself a goal. Liv (Pyle) has been playing really well. This last week I had told a large portion of people that she was going to get herself a goal this year. I'm really happy for her.”
Goals Scorers (assist by)
· 16’ - Savannah Andrews (unassisted)
· 29’ - Andrews (Elena Ruiz)
· 30’ - Taylor Slaymaker (Mirarosa Gyllenswan)
· 39’ - Sierra Springer (Kyana Rios)
· 51’ - Rios (Avery Black)
· 57’ - Kierstynn Garner (Gyllenswan)
· 86’ - Olivia Pyle (Senna McMullen)
· 89’ - Sierra McElhannon (Ashlee Trujillo)
The offense was constantly in possession and attacking with 14 shots on goal. Being relentless, the Bulldogs collected a massive advantage in corner kicks (8-0) over the home Warriors. On the other side, the defense smoked out any chance of a score allowing zero shots on goal.
Waldorf (0-14, 0-8 GPAC) will look to collect its first win against Morningside this coming Wednesday. Goalkeeper Lucia Serrano collected eight saves for WU.
Concordia (8-5-1, 5-3 GPAC) will face off against College of Saint Mary (5-7-3, 4-3-1 GPAC) back at Bulldog Stadium. First kick is set for 7 p.m. CT on Wednesday.