SPEARFISH, S.D. – The Colorado Mesa women's soccer team got back on track with a comfortable 6-0 victory over Black Hills State in the opening game of the RMAC season for both schools.
Lila Dere improved her season total to 10 goals with a pair of strikes while Mira Houck, Addie Randel, Evelyn Hammer and Izzy Sorge also found the net for the Mavs. Haley Klasner had two assists for the Mavericks.
The Mavericks outshot the Yellow Jackets 16-4, forcing two BHSU goalkeepers to contend with 13 shots on target. Colorado Mesa outshot the Yellow Jackets 11-0 in the second half.
Lila Dere got the party started in the sixth minute with a goal off an assist from center back Kaydree Rapp. It was the second assist of the year for Rapp, who maintained her streak of playing in every minute of every game this season.
The Mavericks continued playing direct football as yet another defender, left back Stella Bohlender, tallied an assist on CMU's second goal. Bohlender found redshirt sophomore Mira Houck in the 22nd minute for her first goal of the season. Houck, a central midfield fixture, has played the second-most minutes of any Maverick this season behind Rapp.
It would take until the 63rd minute for the Mavs to score again, but Black Hills State was unable to get anything going offensively in the meantime. Mavs goalkeeper Chloe Dody only needed to make one save in 71 minutes of play. Savannah Harvey received her first game action of the year, completing the shutout by playing the final 19 minutes in net. She did not face a shot.
Dere scored her second of the match and 10th of the season in the 63rd minute off an assist from Klasner, and from there, the floodgates opened. Dere tallied her second assist of the year less than a minute later, setting up Addie Randel for the redshirt sophomore's second goal of the season.
Klasner tallied her second assist of the match in the 73rd minute, setting up Evelyn Hammer for the forward's fifth goal and first since her four-goal explosion against Cal State Dominguez Hills on September 4.
Redshirt sophomore midfielder Izzy Sorge completed the rout by scoring just five minutes into her Mavericks debut. Sorge, who played just over 600 minutes in 30 matches over two seasons for Division I South Dakota before transferring to CMU, played 12 minutes against Black Hills State in her first action in a Maverick uniform and scored her first collegiate goal to make it 6-0.
The win returns the Mavericks to .500 at a 3-3-1 overall record. After getting the conference season off to a strong start on the road, the Mavericks will have two home games next week at Community Hospital Unity Field, taking on CSU Pueblo on Friday at 7 p.m. and UCCS on Sunday at 3 p.m. Both of next week's opponents also won their opening RMAC matches.
