September 1, 2009

Hernandez nets six goals as Cowley earns first win

Wow! Bouncing back from a disappointing opening game at Hutchinson on Friday, the Cowley College women’s soccer team got a school-record six goals from sophomore Amber Hernandez as they shutout Allen County 7-0 Monday night in Arkansas City.

Hernandez, who twice scored five goals in a game as a freshman, tallied three goals in the first half and three more in the second. She nearly had a seventh goal as she had a shot bounce off the goal post with nine minutes remaining.

“Her performance was very big for herself and the team as well,” Cowley head coach Dane Straight said. “She did very well, was under control, and took what was given to her.”

Freshman forward Sadie Hull had a hand in the majority of the scoring as she assisted on four of Hernandez’s goals.

After Hernandez scored the first three goals of the game, Cowley’s Ciara Corboy notched her first goal of the season to put the Lady Tigers on top 4-0 with 7:13 left in the opening half. On the play, Carol Rodrigues stole the ball deep in Cowley territory and dribbled into Allen County’s half of the field before finding Corboy open for the goal.

Rodrigues came back from missing the season opener to give the Lady Tigers stellar play out of the sweeper position.

“Carol makes a difference when she is on the field,” Straight said. “She has the ability to create things when it seems there is nothing there.”

Sophomore Katie Ybarra, making her second career start in goal, snuffed out the few scoring opportunities that Allen County had. While, Cassandra Tarin, Jerrika Keirn, and Jessica Venn provided good work out of the midfield positions.

Having a game like this was exactly what Cowley needed after being embarrassed in its season opening loss at Hutchinson.

“After the Hutchinson game to come back and make the adjustments we needed to was a big confidence booster for us,” Straight said. “It was fun again and we needed that.”

Cowley is now 1-1 on the season. The Lady Tigers will not return to action until Tuesday, Sept. 8 when they host Northern Oklahoma College at 5 p.m.

“We will work on the things we did not do as well as we should have and correct those,” Straight said. “We are going to have to come out ready to play.”