MOORESVILLE — For as muddy and slippery as the pitch was, there was nothing sloppy about the Plainfield girls’ soccer team’s sectional opening performance.
With junior Sophie Warren’s hat trick leading the way, the Quakers flattened the Mooresville Pioneers 9-2 on a damp Mooresville field last night.
“Once we got a couple, we had the momentum going ahead. But we knew going into the game it was going to be a fight,” Plainfield coach Kristen Robbins said. “I don’t look at the score and think it was huge win or anything. It felt like a 1-1 game.”
Plainfield (13-2-3) avenged a 4-3 loss (decided by penalty kicks) to Mooresville nearly two weeks ago in dominating fashion.
Warren had missed her penalty kick in the Sept. 19 meeting between the two teams. Redemption was definitely on her mind entering the rematch.
“I missed my PK and that gave me the motivation to beat this team more,” the junior said. “I might not be able to put a PK in but I was able to put three in tonight and that made me really happy.”
It took 11 minutes for the Quakers to score as Megan Broman found Allison Abbe for a goal. And then the goals just kept coming.
Three minutes later, Abbe lofted a perfect corner kick to the head of Lena Charles for an easy score.
“I always aim for Lena because she’s our scorer on corner and she’s very attacking on them,” Abbe said. “I was just so happy, I tried to run after her but she was sprinting ahead.”
A minute and half later, Warren fielded a bad clear by Mooresville in the box for a goal. She then added her second goal with 18 minutes remaining in the first half when she shot at the Pioneers’ Liz Allen and the keeper couldn’t keep the ball from crossing the goal line.
The Quakers scored four goals in 11 minutes to bust open the sectional contest.
“We just kept telling them to push and push and don’t let up,” Robbins said. “Regardless what the score is, we were going to score and not let up.”
Mooresville’s Logan Bowling got the Pioneers on the scoreboard with 5:02 remaining in the first half but Plainfield had control.
In another 11-minute sequence, the Quakers tacked on four unanswered goals to open the second half as Kassidy Edwards scored two goals, Abbe added her second of the night and Bailey Stewart rebounded a ball off the goal post for an 8-1 lead.
Alex Langford scored Mooresville’s second goal with 15 minutes left in the game before Warren got her third goal with six minutes remaining to end the scoring, 9-2.
For the Quakers, it was their seventh game scoring nine goals or more in a game this season. As they prepare to face Class 2A No. 3-ranked Avon at 7 p.m. Thursday at Mooresville, Plainfield hopes to continue the offensive firepower and avenge a 5-0 loss to the Orioles.
“We need the momentum especially since we got beat pretty bad by Avon last week so I think we’ve been knocked down to reality and know that we have to bring everything we had tonight and more to be able to compete and beat Avon,” Robbins said.
Because of the intermittent rain of the past couple days, there were sections of the playing surface where water and mud splashed up as players ran through. Players were slipping and sliding more than usual and even the line judge lost his footing on a couple of occasions.
“I was lucky enough not to slip as much as some of us but it was miserable and I’m covered from head to toe in all of this mud,” Warren said.
Thursday’s forecast calls for a high of 79 degrees, low of 51 and a zero percent chance of rain.
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