WOMEN’S SOCCER

The Forester women’s soccer team kicked off its season Tuesday afternoon at Newton Park with a convincing 6-0 win over IU South Bend. HU struck quickly to establish a lead that was never challenged.

Six different Foresters found back netting with senior Ashtyn Patrick scoring her team’s first goal of the season just over a minute into the contest. It set the tone for what was to come as the next 25 minutes saw HU pile up three more goals to quickly put the game out of reach.

After Mary Cotter assisted Patrick’s opening goal, the Columbia City native took her turn at slipping one past the keeper at the 13-minute mark for her first collegiate goal and a 2-0 HU advantage. Ten minutes later, the Foresters were back at it again when Avery Giguere scored off a corner kick to grow Huntington’s lead to three.

Courtney McKown got in on the scoring palooza with a blast upper 90 just minutes after Giguere’s sixth career goal. And then just before intermission, Madeline Gile took full advantage of a spill by the keeper to send Lewis and crew into the locker room with a 5-0 lead.

Grace Gibson capped off Huntington’s dominate performance eight minutes into the second frame with the game’s final goal to make for the 6-0 final. When all was said and done, Patrick, McKown and Cotter each posted a goal and an assist on the afternoon.

Ireland Aerni earned the clean sheet in frame for the Foresters. The rookie keeper finished with two saves. As a team, the Titans mustered only three shots on the day while HU racked up 37 shots, 20 of which were on target.

“It was a good overall team performance today,” said Coach Lewis. “We had six different goal scorers. Ashtyn set the tone with a well-placed early goal.

“We maintained possession throughout the game and yielded few shot opportunities. This is a good start to begin the season.”

Today’s hot start is notable as six goals are more than half the total number of goals HU scored all of last season. The Foresters (1-0) hit the road again on Thursday to take on IU Northwest.