Ottumwa, IA – No. 15 Indian Hills Women's Soccer picked up its sixth consecutive win to start the year with a 10-0 victory over NIACC at Schafer Stadium on Saturday. The Warriors were led by eight different goal scorers in the win.
"It's great to again see a lot of different faces on the scoresheet," stated head coach Anthony Longo, "but also being able to score in different ways. We have a very restive team offensively, and we are unselfish when it comes to scoring. NIACC came out very physical and tried to get us rattled. I thought we did a good job of brushing it off and staying focused on what we needed to do."
The Warriors got on the board early with an Ikumi Okumura (Edogawa, Japan/Murata) goal at the 4:46 mark of the opening half on an assist from Makayla Reed (Waverly, IA/Waverly-Shell Rock). Sophomore Risa Ogasawara (Yokohama, Japan/Hinomoto) converted a penalty kick less than five minutes later to go up 2-0.
Sophomore KJ Schmidt (Cedar Rapids, IA/Washington) scored her second goal of the year at the 36:02 mark, scoring on a corner kick from Ogasawara as the Warriors took a 3-0 lead into halftime.
The Warriors poured it on in the second half, scoring three goals in a five minute span, including a pair from Elisabeth Plouy (Twin Falls, ID/Twin Falls). Sophomore Bailey Wiemann (Burlington, IA/Burlington) split Plouy's goals on an assist from Reed, her second of the match.
Freshman Autumn Burland (Polson, MT/Polson) scored two of the team's final four goals. Hope Ward (Burlington, IA/Burlington Notre Dame) scored her fourth goal of the season, coming off a corner kick from Rachel Kaut (Pleasant Hill, IA/Southeast Polk). All four of Ward's goals this season have come by way of a corner kick.
Dare Kroeten (St. Louis Park, MN/St. Louis Park) joined the action at the 84:05 mark on an assist from Zoey Thompson before Burland capped off the scoring on an assist from Wiemann with less than four minutes to play.
The Warrior defense was once again stellar throughout the match as the team collected its fourth shutout of the year.
"Defensively, we were outstanding again," Longo added. "I thought the backline did a really good job limiting any chances."
Freshman Trisha Westphal (Lockridge, IA/Fairfield) collected the shutout in net for the Warriors to improve to 6-0-0 to start her career.
Wiemann continues to lead the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Women's Soccer leaderboard with 22 points as the Warriors claim three of the top five scorers in the nation with Ogasawara and Okumura. Freshman Seira Uko (Toba City, Japan/Jumonji) picked up two more assists on Saturday for her fifth and sixth helpers of the year, tied with Ogasawara for the second most in the nation, two behind Wiemann's nation-leading eight assists on the year.
The Warriors sit atop the national leaderboard with 53 goals overall on the season. The team's 0.33 goals against average is the third best mark nationally.
Indian Hills returns to action Sept. 7 at Scott Community College.
ALL WARRIORS, ALL DAY!
— IHCC Athletics (@IHCCAthletics) September 4, 2021
No. 15 @IHCCSoccerWomen lit up the scoreboard on Saturday to top NIACC 10-0 at Schafer Stadium. Elisabeth Plouy, Autumn Burland netted a pair of goals each in the win.#WeAreHills #WarriorNation pic.twitter.com/fqcnVdLqC4