By Will Chamblee | Sports Writer
Baylor soccer bounced back from last week’s tense 1-0 loss to LSU with a 5-0 drumming of Louisiana. The Bears’ five goals on Saturday at Betty Lou Mays Soccer Field are the most the team has scored in a single game all season.
Junior forward Taylor Moon led the way offensively for Baylor, scoring her first career hat-trick. Senior midfielder Ally Henderson contributed two goals as well.
“Taylor Moon was fantastic today, and I was proud of the overall team effort,” Baylor head coach Paul Jobson said.
Defensively, senior goalkeeper Jen Wandt was her regular self, holding the Rajin’ Cajuns scoreless. The shutout marks Wandt’s 32nd in her career, tying her for fourth place in Big-12 history for career shutouts.
Baylor was the dominant team for most of the game, firing 18 shots on goal. Despite conceding five goals, Louisiana goalkeeper Lauryn Starwood turned in a heroic performance, making 13 saves.
Baylor was unable to find a breakthrough until late in the first half when Moon slid a shot past the keeper to score the first goal of the game with a little over six minutes left in the half.
The goal gave Baylor the spark the it needed, as Henderson put the Bears up 2-0, scoring off of a deflection on a corner kick with two minutes left before halftime. Henderson would secure her brace just as the second half began, hitting a curling shot from outside of the box to give Baylor a comfortable 3-0 lead.
Just seconds later, Moon missed a penalty off the sidebar, but collected the deflection and scored to make it four goals in seven minutes for Baylor. The final goal of the game came with 20 minutes left, as Moon headed home a pinpoint corner from freshman defender Chloe Japic to complete the hat-trick.
“We made some great improvements from our last match,” Jobson said. “I was really pleased with our second-half effort especially.”
With the win, Baylor moves to 4-4-3 on the season. The Bears will continue the spring portion of their schedule against Texas at 6 p.m. on Wednesday at Betty Lou Mays Soccer Field.
