By Maggie Pruitt
ROME – On Tuesday night, the Lady Hawks stepped onto Ben Brady field motivated to improve their record to 4-0. With a win, the team would hold the best starting record in Shorter Women's Soccer history.
The atmosphere was intense as the match began, and the home crowd packed the stands. The Lady Hawks scored in the 19th minute. With a strong win from the midfield, the Lady Hawks were awarded a corner.
Julia Raymond served the ball into the box, hoping someone would get a touch.
Ashley Keller deflected the ball backwards a few yards, and
Chanel Mosley was able to find the back of the net.
The score remained 1-0 throughout the majority of the second half. In the 86th minute, the Lady Hawk s worked for another corner, and Raymond was able place a well-served ball near the back post. Mosley was in perfect position and was able to head the ball past Truett-McConnell's keeper for the Hawks' second goal. The Lady Hawks outshot the Bears 23-2 over the course of the game.
Alden Powell played the complete game in goal, recording her third clean sheet of the season, and has now gone 302:47 minutes without allowing a goal to score.
Coach Birdsong explained, "It's almost always going to be a good result when your center back scored two goals. Julia served two great balls off corner kicks and Chanel put both away. I felt, as a team, we had a complete performance tonight. We created some great chances in both the first and second half and probably deserved more than a 2-0 score line."
The Lady Hawks clinched another victory and now hold the best record to start a season in Shorter Women's Soccer history. The team has improved their play from match to match, and they are starting to come together in a unified and strong way. Coach Birdsong also described, "We couldn't be happier with the way this season has started. The team has worked hard to do something no other team in program history has done before them. We still have a long way to go to develop this team to its full potential, but with the effort this group brings every day, I am confident we will continue to grow."
The Lady Hawks travel on the road next week to face North Alabama.
