Nine Mountaineers find the back of the net in rout of St. Francis – WV MetroNews

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — In a match that was one-way traffic for 90 minutes, the WVU women’s soccer team set a program-record by scoring nine goals in a 9-0 rout of St. Francis in Sunday’s home opener at Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium.

The Mountaineers (1-1) outshot St. Francis (0-2), 33-0 and 18 of their shots were on frame. West Virginia bounced back from a season-opening, 2-0 loss at No. 4 Duke on Thursday evening.

“It was a tale of two halves against Duke. So we were a little frustrated that we couldn’t find the back of the net. We hit a couple posts and had a couple chances. We knew that we had to continue that hunt for consistency and execution. That was obviously something we were able to do today,” said WVU head coach Nikki Izzo-Brown.

“And teams like Penn State aren’t going to give us all those looks. So we have to be able to execute when we are in front of the net.”

AJ Rodriguez opened the scoring in the 12th minute with an unassisted goal. Dilary Heredia-Beltran (16′), Maddie Moreau (27′), Maya McCutcheon (53′), Taylor White (59′), Emily Thompson (72′), Jordyn Wilson (77′), Natalie Zibinskas (82′) and Julianne Vallerand (90′) also found the back of the net for West Virginia.

McCutcheon, Rodriguez, Moreau, Wilson and Lilly McCarthy added assists for the Mountaineers.

With the match well in hand early in the second half, Izzo-Brown was able to substitute liberally late in the game. 18 players came off the bench with each playing at least nine minutes.

“We’re still trying to figure it out to make sure everybody is building chemistry and understanding where our strengths are but also where we have to clean things up quickly.”

The Mountaineers continue their three-game homestand Thursday when they host No. 10 Penn State Thursday evening. The Nittany Lions defeated West Virginia in the second round of last year’s NCAA Tournament.

“We know that Penn State will match us in every department from physical to technical, and give us some more. So we really have to make sure that we build our confidence after this game but also understand that it will be a whole other beast coming Thursday.”