Avery's Lady Vikings soccer team continued its hot play with a 4-0 blanking of the Owen Warlassies Wednesday afternoon at MacDonald Stadium.
The Vikings opened the scoring as, off of a corner kick, Emily Banner assisted on a goal by Elyse Perry in the 22nd minute to lead 1-nil.
Later in the first half the Lady Vikings received a scare as freshman Mary Chesnut Smith took a kicked ball directly to her eye area. Smith was helped off the field suffering from blurred vision and sat out the remainder of the first half.
Fortunately she was able to return to the pitch, playing on the front line in the second half.
Late in the first half Avery scored a second goal as Rachel Buchanan scored in the 36th minute to increase the lead to 2-0, a lead that remained unchanged through the rest of the half.
Smith made her presence felt almost immediately as the second half began. Two minutes into the half the freshman dribbled over 30 yards by the Owen defense and fired a shot past the Owen keeper for a 3-0 Avery lead.
Late in the first half Avery scored a second goal as Rachel Buchanan scored in the 36th minute to increase the lead to 2-0, a lead that remained unchanged through the rest of the half.
Smith made her presence felt almost immediately as the second half began. Two minutes into the half the freshman dribbled over 30 yards by the Owen defense and fired a shot past the Owen keeper for a 3-0 Avery lead.
The scoring was closed out by the Vikings on a goal in the 48th minute by Katelynn Eudy off the foot of a Mary Chesnut Smith corner kick. The effort was the final goal as Avery went on to cruise to the conference win.
"The second half was the opposite side of the coin from the first half. In the first half we were doing everything up the middle, right where Owen's best players are, and everything was bungling down" Coach Tom Evaul said after the win. "There was no intensity in the first half, and we were just standing around and not getting to the ball. I think in the second half the girls responded well and were more aggressive. We were still sending the ball in the middle more than we wanted them to. Some of our younger girls who haven't played a lot, like Megan Robbins, came through and showed some promise, showing us some things they haven't shown us before. As a team we still need to stay sharp and not get complacent or comfortable because we have two big games still coming up."
Avery's victory improves their record to 11-2-2 on the year, with a match on Thursday afternoon at home against Erwin.
