Sports Release
RIO GRANDE, Ohio – The Shawnee State women’s soccer team used a dominating display on both sides of the pitch in holding Rio Grande to just one shot in the first half and obtaining five goals from three different Bears on Wednesday evening in a 5-1 rout of the RedStorm at the Stanley L. Evans Memorial Complex in Rio Grande.
From the outset, Shawnee State (6-4-1) showed its dominance early and often as the Bears willed themselves to a 23-8 shot advantage over Rio Grande (3-6), including a 13-1 edge in the first half by itself. Overall, Shawnee State put together a 16-3 edge over the RedStorm in shots on goal.
For the first 10 minutes of action, both teams would come and go without getting much going offensively as both teams combined for just a single shot to start play.
The Bears, however, wasted little time in getting their offense going following the first 10 minutes of play as Schuyler Jones took a pass from Maddie Woodard and blasted it past RedStorm goalkeeper Kristin Garn to give Shawnee State a 1-0 lead at the 10:43 mark in the first half.
From that point on, the Bears left no doubt as to who was in control of the contest.
This point was proven in no further manner than from the 22nd minute of play to the 35th minute of action. In that 13-minute stretch, Shawnee State launched seven shots, including six of them on goal, as the Bears began to take control of the contest.
In the 29th minute, the Bears broke through again as Kyla Toles took a pass from Jenny Campbell and diced it past Garn to give Shawnee State a 2-0 advantage of Rio Grande at the 29:15 mark.
Two minutes later, Campbell and Toles repeated the feat as Campbell again threaded the needle through the defense to a streaking Toles, who beat Garn once more with another blast to put the Bears in complete control with a 3-0 advantage and less than 13:30 left to go in the opening stanza of play.
Shawnee State, however, wasn’t done yet. Not to be outdone by the efforts of her counterparts, Woodard responded from a shot that was blocked in the 34th minute by piercing yet another shot past Garn with less than 10 minutes to play in the first half to cap off an absolute barrage of shots by the Bears’ offensive attack.
In fact, the only area that seemed to equal Shawnee State’s offensive dominance was the Bears’ overall efforts on the defensive end.
Overall, the Shawnee State backline had no issues in shutting the Rio Grande offense down as the Bears held the RedStorm without a shot over the final 24 minutes of play.
This allowed the offensive attack to settle into a comfortable rhythm as Kasey Crow’s shot at the 20:38 mark was the only shot that the Shawnee State defense allowed during the entire first half as the Bears rolled to a 4-0 lead at the halftime break.
In the second half of play, Shawnee State continued to apply the pressure on the Rio Grande defense, as the Bears applied three shots toward the net in the first seven minutes of the second half en route to a 10-7 shot advantage in the second frame.
While Shawnee State was not able to find as much success in the goal as they had in the first half, the workmanlike effort of the backline ensured that Rio Grande would not challenge the Bears over the rest of the way.
Even though the RedStorm were able to get on the board with a Morgan Grunkemeyer goal at the 84:43 mark, Woodard made sure that the game would end in a fitting manner.
With less than three minutes remaining in the contest, the sophomore found space on the far side and put a fifth and final shot past Garn to cap off the offensive outburst and give Shawnee State a dominating 5-1 victory over their archrival.
Offensively, Woodard and Toles would lead the charge as both players combined to put 11 shots up for the Bears – including 10 on goal – as the pair combined to score nine points on the evening. Jones and Campbell also added a pair of points on a goal and two assists, respectively.
Wednesday’s 5-1 victory marked the first time that Shawnee State had beaten Rio Grande since 2012 – a 1-0 victory at the Shawnee Turf on Oct. 9 of that year. Overall, the rivalry has been evenly matched as the Bears and RedStorm are 3-3 against one another since 2010.
After a two-day layoff, Shawnee State will continue its road trip as the Bears return to Mid-South Conference action for the first time in two-and-a-half weeks with a matchup at No. 24-ranked Georgetown looming. The matchup against the Tigers is set for 2 p.m.
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