No. 21 Concordia women’s soccer blast Bethel College, 5-0 in season opener
SEWARD, Neb. – The No. 21 Concordia women’s soccer team won its season opener against Bethel College in a 5-0 shutout Wednesday night. Sophomore Esther Soenksen led the Bulldogs with two goals and one assist to Jordan McCoy. The offensive win for Concordia gave the back line and keeper, Chrissy Lind a break from high amounts of action. Chrissy Lind recorded just two saves on Bethels’ five shots.
The first goal of the game came from Soenksen 8:42 into the match. The goal came from a rebound off the left post and was tapped in by the sophomore from one yard out. Jessica Skerston carried her success from last season into Wednesday night’s match. The sophomore scored the second goal of the game 40:41 into the first stanza on a pass from Leigha McConnell. The last goal of the half came from freshman Seward native Maria Deeter.
In the second half, Soenksen scored her second goal of the tilt 2:17 into the half. Soenksen then fed the ball to McCoy for her first goal of the season 4:42 into the half.
The Bulldogs outshot the Threshers 22-5 in the competition. Bulldog keeper Lind marked two saves in 90 minutes of play. Thresher goalie Kim McLaughlin guarded the net for the majority of the time and recorded four saves while Twila Smedley saved one goal.
Head coach Greg Henson said, “We were ready to go. Preseason has been a little bit over a week now and we ready to get started. There’s excitement and there is always going to be a little bit of nerves. That might have been what took us a little bit longer than what we would’ve liked to get on the board to start the game but we worked through that pretty quickly.”
The Concordia Bulldogs are now 1-0 on the season while the Bethel Threshers fall to 0-1. The No. 21 lady Bulldogs will return to action Saturday, Aug. 29 at 5:30 at Bulldog Stadium as they take on No. 16 Bellevue College.