Aberdeen Central came out focused and rolled past Douglas-Rapid City Christian-New Underwood 10-0 in girls’ soccer action Saturday afternoon at Brownell Activities Complex.
The game was stopped with just under 15 minutes left on the 10-goal rule.
“The girls showed up to play. I thought we played pretty well most of the first half. It’s hard when the goals come like that, because sometimes it’s easy to relax. I thought the girls did a good job of focusing,” said Central coach Merle Aske. “We got the backups in and got them quite a few minutes, so hopefully later in the season if we have to rely on them they’ll have a little less anxiety about being out there.”
The Golden Eagles scored three goals in the first nine minutes of the contest to set the tone for the rest of the way.
The start was in stark contrast to Friday’s win over Spearfish where Central failed to score for the first 30 minutes, then had a three-goal barrage right before the half.
“I think our intensity in warm up was just a little bit better,” said Central senior Taryn Hettich. “We were moving a lot better and making runs a lot better. Today we just brought the intensity out right away.”
Hettich scored the first goal of the day before Deshani Peters and Courtney Nipp quickly made it a three-goal game.
Peters had a three goals in the opening half as Central opened a 7-0 lead.
Nipp added a second goal in the first half and Lauren Joosten had a goal in each half. Adeline Donat and Madyson Gillen capped the scoring for the Eagles.
Aske said his players slowed things down in the second half and tried to work on new things.
“We slowed it down in the second half and tried to control it a little bit and tried to find different seams that we haven’t been trying yet,” Aske said. “The girls did a good job of focusing on what we needed to do.”
Hettich said playing with a big lead takes some of the pressure off and allows the players to take a few more chances with the ball without putting the defense at risk.
“I think we were able to relax on our shots a little bit more and take a little more gambles on our passes,” Hettich said, “but we for sure have to stay smart, make sure we’re not playing square balls across the middle so they can quick counter-attack on our defense.”
The Golden Eagles host to Sioux Falls Jefferson at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, their third match in five days.
Hettich believes the squad will be ready for another contest.
“It’s a quick turnaround, but I think with preparing through the summer, and preparing the last couple of months and couple of weeks before our season officially kicked off, our coaches have prepared us for this and I think we’ll be ready,” she said.
Aske knows his players are not in peak midseason shape, but said the full schedule to start the season will help with the process.
“It will help us gets our legs in shape a little bit so when we get towards the playoffs, hopefully it will pay off,” Aske said. “Now is the time to burn our legs up a little bit, so it will be good to get that other game in.”
Douglas-RC Christian-New Underwood 0 0 – 0
Aberdeen Central 7 3 – 10
First Half
1, AC, Taryn Hettich, 6th minute; 2, AC, Deshani Peters (Courtney Nipp, Kailyn Poppen), 8th minute; 3, AC, Nipp (Peters), 9th minute, 4, AC, Peters, 25th minute; 5, AC, Peters (Poppen), 27th minute; 6, AC, Nipp 28th minute; 7, AC, Lauren Joosten, 30th minute.
Second Half
8, AC, Joosten, 51st minute; 9, AC, Adeline Donat, 60th minute; 10, AC, Madyson Gillen (Madison Hochstetter), 67th minute.
Shots on Goal: Douglas-Rapid City Christian-New Underwood 0; Aberdeen Central 33.
Goalies: Douglas-Rapid City Christian-New Underwood, Maci Everhart (23 saves); Aberdeen Central, Taylor Thorstenson (0 saves).
