Women's Soccer: WVU Sails Past Navy
November 16, 2007 08:48 PM | General
By Christopher Marshall for MSNsportsNET.com
November 16, 2007
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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Deana Everrett scored two second-half goals to lead the fourth-seeded West Virginia women’s soccer team to an easy 4-0 victory over the Navy Midshipmen in the first round of the NCAA tournament Friday night at Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium.
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| West Virginia's Ashley Banks attempts a shot during Friday night's 4-0 victory over Navy in an NCAA tournament first-round game at Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium.
Allison Toffle photo |
“We talked all week long about how we’ve had two strong opponents to close out our BIG EAST season and Navy hadn’t had the opportunity to face as good of opponents as we did,” West Virginia Coach Nikki Izzo-Brown said. “We felt that if we could come out with that speed of play that we used in those two games that Navy might not know what to expect.”
The Mountaineers treated the 777 fans that braved freezing temperatures to an offensive show. The Gold and Blue outshot the Midshipmen 31-4 and held a 16-2 advantage on shots on goal.
Senior forward Ashley Banks got the scoring started just 7:19 seconds into the contest when she took a cross from Greer Barnes and, using a low first touch to settle the ball, sent a rocket passed Navy goalkeeper Lizzie Barnes and into the back of the net. The play, which resulted in Banks’ 14th goal of the season, was set up when Barnes blocked a Navy clearance and then controlled the ball, making a run up the left side.
West Virginia led 1-0 at halftime, having outshot Navy 17-0 in that period.
The Mountaineers wasted no time in putting the game away as junior forward Everrett took a beautiful pass over the top from junior midfielder Lisa DuCote and put the ball in the back of the net to make the score 2-0 at the 49:53 mark.
“It was a great ball over the top by DuCote that pretty much landed right on my foot.” Everrett said. “The goalie came out a little bit and I put it in the right corner.”
Senior forward Kim Bonilla got in on the scoring act just nine minutes later, scoring on a nifty spin and turn move from 18 yards out to give WVU a 3-0 lead in the 59th minute. The goal was Bonilla’s seventh of the season and marked the 13th goal the Mountaineers have scored in the first 15 minutes of the second half this season.
The final tally came at the 64:34 mark when Everrett found the back of the net for the second time, powering a rebound off her first shot into the top left corner of the goal. It was the sixth multi-goal game of Everrett’s career.
After not scoring any goals for the Gold and Blue in the BIG EAST tournament, the trio of Everrett, Bonilla and Banks tallied all four goals tonight.
“I think we were doing a good job of connecting and we connected really well throughout the whole game,” Everrett said.
The 31 shots by West Virginia tonight are a season-high. The 4-0 win is the Mountaineers’ largest margin of victory in the NCAA tournament and matches the most goals scored in the Big Dance. They also scored four in a 4-2 victory over Loyola-Maryland in the 2003 NCAA opening round.
Lost in the scoring explosion was the outstanding play of the WVU defense, which allowed just four shots and only two on goal. Navy’s first shot came at the 53:02 mark of the contest.
“I thought that as a whole team we played defense well but the back line really eliminated a loot of good scoring opportunities,” Izzo-Brown said.
West Virginia (16-4-2) moves on to face James Madison in the second round on Sunday, at 1 p.m. The Dukes were 2-0 winners over Penn in the first game this afternoon. The Mountaineers beat JMU 4-2 in the preseason.
“They are athletic and physical. I think that they have a couple of key players that we are going to have to eliminate but everybody has changed since preseason,” Izzo-Brown said. “We know some things they do and we are going to try to eliminate what they do well and take care of West Virginia soccer.”
Ticket prices are $7 for adults and $5 for youth and students. The first 200 WVU students will be admitted free courtesy of the Mountaineer Maniacs.
