Hawks corner a victory over Santiam Christian
Girls soccer: Horizon Christian evens its league record at 3-3-1 with its 3-0 win
HIGH-FLYING HAWKS — Horizon Christian freshman Sammy Mullen (left) battles a Santiam Christian player for the ball during the Hawks’ 3-0 victory.
DAN BROOD / The Times
TUALATIN — The Horizon Christian High School girls soccer team just may have cornered the market on corner kicks.
The Hawks scored two first-half goals on corner kicks on their way to posting a 3-0 win over Santiam Christian in a District 4 match played Monday at Horizon Christian High School.
“Those goals were really nice,” Horizon Christian coach Cory Hand said. “Both girls (junior Sarah Brucker and freshman Lizzie Ng) hit the ball well, and we got one goal from each side.”
With the win, the Hawks evened their District 4 record at 3-3-1 (5-4-1 overall), putting them, at that point, in a tie with both Blanchet and Santiam Christian for fourth place in the league standings.
“It was a huge win,” Hand said. “They were ahead of us in fourth place, so we needed to win this.”
The Hawks got off to a strong start in Monday’s match. The Horizon Christian defense shined in the opening minutes, with sophomore goalkeeper Tessa Williams reaching out to snag a Santiam Christian corner kick.
Horizon Christian senior Victoria Holmes and junior Candice Russell both had shots on goal in the first 13 minutes of the match before the Hawks broke through with the first goal of the contest.
With 25 minutes and 32 seconds left in the first half, Brucker gave Horizon Christian a 1-0 lead when her hard-hit corner kick from the left side deflected off a Santiam Christian defender and hit the back of the net.
Less than five minutes later, the Hawks struck again from the corner. Ng, taking a left-footed corner kick from the right side of the field, hit a high, lofting shot that deflected off the goalkeeper’s hands and bounced just inside the left post of the goal — with Holmes right there ready to tap it in if needed — to up the lead to 2-0.
The Hawks’ third goal came with about 10 minutes left in the match. Ng started the scoring play with a free kick. Russell got to the ball and knocked it past the Santiam Christian keeper. From there, freshman Anna Dempster followed up and batted it into the back of the net for her first goal of the season, which upped the lead to 3-0.
“We’re pretty excited about where we’re at,” Hand said. “We’re really coming along on defense. We have a lot of depth in the back line.”
Horizon Christian was scheduled to play at Blanchet in a league match on Wednesday. Results of that match weren’t available when the Times went to press.
The Hawks will be back in action Monday when they host Central in a league match starting at 4:15 p.m.