The Statesboro Blue Devil girls had their biggest offensive output of the season and pitched a shutout in the process as they knocked off New Hampstead in a region match up by a mercy rule-shortened win of 10-0 Friday night at Womack Field.
“New Hampstead is athletic, but they aren’t at the same talent level as our team, and sometimes you can play down to your competition,” said SHS coach Brian Thomas. “I don’t think we played down, in fact I thought we came out focused and got better here tonight.”
The Blue Devil goals came early and often. Smith Kaiser found Isabella Gutierrez, who found the back of the net from 12 yards out to give Statesboro a 1-0 lead at the 31:44 mark of the first half.
Less than two minutes later, the Blue Devils scored again. Gutierrez took the ball at midfield, drove down the left side and played a perfect long pass ahead to Katelyn Carter who took a touch and scored from 10 yards out to make it 2-0.
The scoring continued at the 23:24 mark as Christian Reagin found Gutierrez about 20 yards away in the center of the field, and she blasted a shot in the back of the net to make it 3-0. Brooke Stansel added the Blue Devils fourth goal of the game as she put in a loose ball in front of the goal. Stansel then found Tanner Kaiser for the the score to give Statesboro a 5-0 halftime lead.
The game played out much the same in the second half. With many of the younger Blue Devil players in, Smith Kaiser found Jenna Back in front of the goal for the score to make it 6-0. Less than three minutes later Smith Kaiser passed to Nora Wiggins who scored from 10 yards out to make it 7-0.
The scoring continued at the 24:14 mark as Carter dribbled down from near midfield, past a defender and scored to make it 8-0. Rachel Thomas then found Smith Kaiser who blasts it in from 15 yards out to make it 9-0. The finishing touch came with 12:07 left as Smith Kaiser found Thomas for her fifth assist of the game, and Thomas’ first ever high school goal, to close it out at 10-0.
Statesboro improves to 5-1-2 (2-0). Next up for the Blue Devils they will host Ware County at 5 p.m. Tuesday.
“We know that Ware County will be a big step up in competition.” Thomas said. “We played an overtime game with them last year, they are an aggressive team and we will have to be ready for them.”
