Women's soccer rolls to victory at William Penn

OSKALOOSA, IOWA – A hot and humid Saturday afternoon on the other side of Iowa proved to be a hospitable environment for Morningside soccer as the Mustangs wrapped up a win against the William Penn Statesmen, 4-2.

The score on the board at the conclusion of the game didn't tell the entire story in today's match, as Morningside jumped out to an early 2-0 lead, with Keyera Harmon scoring an unassisted goal in the 15th minute followed by a second goal, assisted by Merel Kooji,  in the 22nd minute.

"We started strong. We were moving the ball all over, but then we dropped off a bit," said coach Tom Maxon.

The Mustangs may have breathed too large of a sigh of relief, though, as William Penn responded with its first goal of the day in the 31st minute, giving the team some momentum as the teams hit the locker rooms at halftime.

"We had plenty of chances," said Maxon, "We pressed most of the game and anything they had was on a long counter attack."

Out of the halftime break, the Statesmen showed that they weren't just going to go lightly, hitting the equalizer in the 55th minute, and putting the Mustangs back on their heels.

We regrouped following the second goal, talked about what we needed to do, simplified, and just moved the ball," reflected Maxon. 

But the Mustangs weren't to be outdone, as Morningside went back on the attack and Samantha O'Roy took an assist from Mia Stoffel and chipped in what would become the game winner in the aftermath of a Morningside corner kick. 

With less than four minutes to play, it seemed like Morningside was going to be content coasting to the final horn. That is until Julie Raffel took a pass from Merel Kooji and tucked it neatly in the back of the net.

"That last goal was a beauty," described Morningside's skipper. "We had good team play with three or four passes, we got the ball out wide to somebody across the middle, and that was the one that Julie Raffel put away."

The Mustangs will be back in action on Tuesday as they continue on the road at Bellevue University.