Lady Pioneers win 9-0 in Stillwater Cup opener

By Scott Nulph snulph@stwnewspress.com

STILLWATER, Okla. — The Stillwater Lady Pioneers had to play two different matches on Friday in the first day of the Stillwater Cup soccer tournament.

And they had to do it against one opponent.

With a steady northerly wind at 25 miles per hour beating on both Stillwater and Kingfisher, the Lady Pioneers scored three first-half goals into the wind and then dominated the second half to beat the Lady Jackets 9-0 at Pioneer Stadium.

The Lady Pioneers (3-1) will finish pool play today at 10:35 a.m. against Sand Springs at Hamilton Field and at 1:45 p.m. against Enid at Pioneer Stadium.

The top two teams in each pool advance to play tonight. The pool winners will meet for the championship at the Oklahoma State soccer complex with the girls playing at 6:30 p.m. and the boys at 8 p.m. The two runnerups meet for third place at Pioneer Stadium with the girls playing at 6:30 p.m. and the boys at 8 p.m.

“We love Pioneer Stadium, but our goal is to be playing over at the OSU field,” SHS coach John Fields said with a laugh.

The Lady Pioneers — winners of three straight — certainly got off to a good start in that pursuit.

Despite going into the wind in the first half, Stillwater dominated the play. Sophomore Brooke Avery got SHS on the board with the first of her two goals with 17:52 remaining in the first half

“Whenever you go against the wind, you have more control,” Avery said. “And whenever you go with the wind you have more power. In the first half we were able to control the ball on the ground and get good chances.”

Sophomore Natalie Fieldsend followed up two minutes later to give SHS a 2-0 lead. Randa Castleberry finished off the scoring in the first half, scoring on a free kick from about 30 yards to the right of the goalie.

Six different Lady Pioneers scored goals in the second half as Fields went to his bench early and often.

Avery, senior Kirsty Baze, senior Kim Stebens, freshman Chablee Sanders, freshman Abbie Wood and freshman Kendall Gordon all found the back of the net in the second half.

Stillwater peppered Kingfisher goalie Chelsey Holmes all match, finishing with 23 shots on goal. On the other end, SHS sophomore goalie Emily Gallaway had an easy afternoon, facing only 1 shot on goal.

“For us this entire season, even the game we lost early on, we’ve been dominating the field, we’re just not scoring goals,” Fields said. “The girls know that in a situation like this you need to win the ones you’re supposed to and that’s what we did today.”

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