SILOAM SPRINGS, Ark. -- The No. 14 John Brown University women's soccer team opened Sooner Athletic play in convincing fashion, using a hat trick from freshman Jenna Miller to easily dispatch Central Christian (Kan.) on Tuesday (Oct. 1) afternoon at Alumni Field.
Six players scored for the Golden Eagles (6-2-1, 1-0-0 Sooner Athletic) in the squad's highest goal-scoring effort of the season. Junior Sienna Nealon added a pair of goals while senior Anne Metz, junior Vanessa Reynoso, junior Megan Hutto and senior Kristen Howell each tallied a goal on the scoresheet.
The visiting Tigers played a dangerous game in which the back line attempted to trap the JBU offense in an offsides position. That gameplan backfired as five Golden Eagles scored on one-versus-one situations with CCCK keeper Hannah Koehn, including Nealon's fourth game-winner of the season.
Senior Kathryn Huff's through ball in the middle sprung Nealon free who beat Koehn all alone in the sixth minute.
Four minutes later, another Huff setup found Hutto in a dangerous position that allowed her to turn and rip a 14-yard blast to the top shelf, doubling the John Brown lead.
Then, it was off to the races as the hosts tallied three more goals in the first half to build a 5-0 lead, including Miller's first collegiate goal - another breakaway that was booted through the back line by senior Sarah Hughes in the 33rd minute. Four minutes later, in a moment of deja vu, Miller again was sling-shot into a breakaway, this time by Howell.
Howell added her third point of the afternoon just before the half as junior Emily Jordan's boot through the middle of the field allowed Howell to break in all alone on Koehn. Howell easily manuevered around the out-of-place keeper and chipped a shot to the middle of the goal for her third of the season.
Nealon opened the second frame just as she did the first - with a goal in the 51st minute that she buried in front of the goal off a feed from Hutto to build the Golden Eagle lead to six. Three minutes later, Metz joined the goal parade on a singular effort that saw her driblle up the right wing and strike a shot to the bottom, near corner.
Less than a minute later, Reynoso let go her third of the season with a 13-yard shot after moving around Koehn and tucked it inside the far right post. JBU completed the scoring in the 79th as Miller finished hat trick with another breakwaway goal that Howell started with a perfect feed from midfield on the right flank.
Junior Caitlin Logan needed to make just one save for her sixth clean sheet of the season.
Up Next
John Brown will now depart for Chickasha, Okla. on Saturday (Oct. 5) to take on its toughest task of the SAC regular season slate in Science & Arts (Okla.). The match is scheduled for a 2 p.m. kick-off.
