WOMEN’S SOCCER

The Huntington women’s soccer team scored early and often Tuesday evening in a 5-0 thrashing of the Manchester Spartans at King Stadium. It had a completely different feel than a few days prior when they played another Heartland Conference opponent in Anderson that ended in a 0-0 draw.

The Foresters have dominated the series with the Spartans. Dating back to 2012, HU has collected eight wins against just one loss with last year’s 9-0 decision the largest disparity on record.

On this given night, Coach David Lewis watched five different Foresters score a goal. Sophie Shepherd got things started just over eight minutes in when she one-touched a pass from Katie Hooley that spun around the keeper into back netting.

Ten minutes later, Hooley, who returned to HU’s line-up just over a week ago, juked a defender and then with a strong left foot drilled a shot far post to make it 2-0. It was her first goal of the year, the sixth of her career.

Maria Cote Molina put more distance between the two teams when she one-touched a pass from Joya Drenth that looked wide but wrapped around and into the back of the net for a 3-0 difference with just under 20 minutes left in the half.

As it turned out, Huntington did most of their damage in the first frame with Ella Theard next in line for a goal. Just outside the box, the junior midfielder scored a banger in the 30th minute to send the Foresters into intermission up 4-0.

It was only a matter of time before transfer Elana McGinnis got in on the action. While tonight’s contest was only her second appearance of the year, she put the finishing touches on the shutout with just over 13 minutes remaining. After receiving a pass from Madeline Gile and then manhandling a defender, the gritty forward tucked a ball into side netting far post for her first goal in Forester green.

When all the dust settled, the hosts went off for 25 shots, 15 on frame, while giving up just one Spartan shot. Macie Sanders earned the clean sheet in goal having collected one save during her 90 minutes between the pipes.

With this win, Huntington improves to 4-1-1. They are back at King Stadium on Thursday to host Grace Christian at 4:00 p.m.