By Jordan Sosa’s standards, the Emporia High girls soccer team started off slowly against Highland Park before turning it on in a mercy-rule 10-0 victory Wednesday afternoon.
If Sosa’s observations are correct, woe to the opponent that gets the Lady Spartans’ best shot from the get-go.
EHS scored twice in the first three minutes to jump out to a 2-0 lead en route to the runaway victory. Sosa scored the second goal for the Lady Spartans, the first of four on the night for the freshman sweeper.
“We started off kind of slow,” Sosa said, “but we got it going after that and worked really well together.”
Emporia (5-6) wasted little time getting on the scoreboard, as Candy Salas knocked an unassisted shot into the upper left corner of the net from about 25 yards away with 1 minute, 41 seconds gone by.
Sosa scored her first goal of the game exactly 1 minute later off a cross from Rachelle VanGundy, and the rout was on.
Danielle Flanagin and Jessica Decker punched in a pair of long-distance shots to stretch Emporia’s advantage out to 4-0.
Sosa recorded her second goal in the 23rd minute when she hit a lob shot over the head of Highland Park keeper Deidre Augusto, making it 5-0.
With the score becoming more and more lopsided, EHS began substituting en masse. EHS coach John Decker also was worried that the mounting score would cause his team to let down its guard.
“It’s always a concern as a coach, because the worst thing that could happen when you lose your focus is get people injured,” Decker said. “It’s hard to keep your focus in a game like this.”
Emporia closed out the half with three scores in the final 10 minutes, as Jessica Muckenthaler (31st minute) put in one goal while Laura Knickerbocker (36th minute and 38th minute) scored back-to-back goals to help push the halftime advantage to 8-0.
Coming into the game, Decker said he wanted his team to work on scoring off of corner kicks, saying his team had been “putting a lot of nice balls in front there and haven’t gotten any in.”
Sosa made Decker a happy coach while at the same time scoring her third and fourth goals when she knocked in a pair of scores off of corner kicks by Jessica Decker to end the game.
“That’s really nice when you have a freshman knock four in,” the coach said. “We just need her to keep it going.”
All told, Emporia got 27 shots on goal compared to zero for Highland Park.
“We try to keep it at our level and not go down to their level,” Sosa said, “and I thought we pretty much did that tonight.”
Emporia is back in action at 4:30 p.m. today to face Shawnee Heights at TRYSA.
Wednesday at Emporia
Emporia 10, Highland Park 0
Highland Park 0 0 — 0
Emporia 8 2 — 10
First Half
Emp — Candy Salas (unassisted), 2nd minute
Emp — Jordan Sosa (assist from Rachelle VanGundy), 3rd minute
Emp — Danielle Flanagin (unassisted), 12th minute
Emp — Jessica Decker (unassisted), 14th minute
Emp — Sosa (unassisted), 23rd minute
Emp — Jessica Muckenthaler (Kylie White), 31st minute
Emp — Laura Knickerbocker (unassisted), 36th minute
Emp — Knickerbocker (assist from Jennifer Knickerbocker), 38th minute
Second Minute
Emp — Sosa (assist from Decker), 41st minute
Emp — Sosa (assist from Decker), 52nd minute
Shots on goal — Emporia 27, HP 0. Saves — Emporia: Nuessen 0, HP: Augusto 17. Total Fouls — Emporia 2, HP 1.