Sept. 6, 2005
Box Score
The George Mason women's soccer team had a scoring explosion on Tuesday night in the Patriots' home opener against St. Joseph's as Mason scored six goals for the first time since 1999 as the Patriots defeated the Hawks, 6-1 in the season's home opener. Mason took as many shots on Tuesday as it had in its first three games combined, coming out aggressive from the start and staying that way for nearly the entire night.
Rachel Wiggins recorded her first career hat trick, the fifth-player in Mason school history to do so, finding the back of the net three times and dealing out an assist on another goal as the sophomore ran her season goal total to four. Laura Salichs, Amy Sorenson and Nilani Duarte added goals and Jaime Daulton and Danielle MacDonald each had an assist as Mason played every available player in the game. Olivia Brown got the start in net and played 63-plus minutes before giving way to Kasey Davenport. The two combined to stop seven of eight shots on goal.
Mason (2-2) recorded its first goal of the night just 1:26 into the match when Salichs put the ball in from just inside the box. Less than five minutes later, Wiggins scored her first goal of the night to make it 2-0. She stole a pass less than 10 feet from the net and tapped the ball in for the two-goal lead.
St. Joseph's (2-2) scored its one goal of the night at the 14:21 mark. After a skirmish in the corner, Ali Wean emerged and sent a pass to Megan Schutt who one-timed the ball past Brown. It was one of just eight shots on goal for the Hawks, who entered the match ranked No. 13 in the Mid-Atlantic by Soccer Buzz magazine. It was the first-ever ranking by the Hawks in that poll. Mason was ranked No. 15 in the region.
The score remained 2-1 at the half but Mason pressed the attack early in the second. First Wiggins scored off a pass from MacDonald. The shot came from just outside the box and went past two defenders and Nicole DiEnna, the goalie. DiEnna stopped just four of the 10 shots she faced.
The score went to 4-1 at the 55:30 mark when Sorenson scored off a feed from Wiggins. It was 5-1 at the 63:24 mark when Wiggins scored an unassisted goal after dribbling to the cusp of the box. The score became 6-1 when Duarte scored through traffic off an assist from Duarte. It's was Mason's first six-point outing since Oct. 22, 1999 when the Patriots downing Old Dominion, 6-2. It was the largest margin of victory for Mason since the Patriots beat Richmond by six on Oct. 10, 1998. The Patriots outshot St. Joseph's 29-18 on the night with a 16-8 edge in shots on goal.
Mason, having already faced teams from Mountain West, the WAC and the Atlantic-10, will next face a SEC team when the Patriots play at Arkansas on Sunday at 1:30 p.m.
