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RICHMOND -- St. Clairsville found the back of the net early and often in besting Edison 12-1 on Thursday at the Edison Unified Sports Complex.
Senior Delaney Florence got the scoring going early when she took a pass from Bug Yeager from the left side and buried it past Avah Reed less than two minutes into the contest.
What followed was a flurry of shots as the Red Devils sent 18 shots at Reed in the first half with
seven ringing true.
After an assist, Yeager scored, followed by two of freshman Emma Gasber's three goals. Fellow freshmen Ashlynn Lednik and Kaylee Shaffer each scored twice, and Florence later tallied a second in the second half. One hat trick, three braces and a whole of activity.
For head coach Wes Stoner, it was also a continuation of the aggressive play his team finally exhibited the night before against Big Red.
"We were moving the ball quick and were still aggressive, which is good," Stoner said as his team improved to 4-2 heading into a Buckeye 8 matchup with Harrison Central on Tuesday. "We didn't do anything drastically different, but kept up our aggressive style of play.
"We were putting the ball away, which is good."
It also allowed the Red Devils' backups to receive significant minutes as Stoner started making
mass substitutions after Gasber's third goal. With 28:14 showing.
The final goals were made by Laney Gardner and McKenna Booth.
"We were able to get a lot of girls a lot of playing time that normally don't play that much, which is always great."
Edison coach Emily Waggoner saw a few things she liked, especially early, from her players. But as the tally started weighing heavily in the visitors' favor, she saw heads dropping and effort lessening.
She knows her team has come a long way since mid-July when practice began ramping up and that early group of girls, many of which don't have the years of playing experience under their belts, look a bit rough.
"I am proud of a lot of them," Waggoner said. "If you would have seen them beginning July 17 when they first came out, you'd be blown away by their progress. Some had never touched the ball before.
"I'm proud of a lot of them, but I'm disappointed with how we played as the goals starting accumulating."
Waggoner is also looking to provide some stability in the leadership category as the players have worked with four different coaches in a short timespan as they've progressed.
With experience and continuity will come improvement, and the ability to keep their heads when the score start getting lopsided.
"It's just a matter of not letting it get into their heads," Waggoner said. "When they see the goals start to rack up, they are just done."
Who else may be done for Tuesday's game against Harrison Central is St. Clairsville sophomore keeper Kailin Hughes.
Hughes needed only one save Thursday and surrendered just one goal to Brenna Liggett on a penalty kick. But midway through the second half, huge came out of the net and made a hard
challenge on what looked to be a breakaway attempt at the net.
She made contact with both the Wildcats' player and the ball, nullifying the scoring chance, but in doing so, there was a hard collision. The official immediately pulled the red card.
Devils' starting goalkeeper Kiya Kyer is in the concussion protocol and wasn't available, meaning Gasber was elected to replace Hughes in net. She too made one save.
Stoner didn't agree with the call and plans to appeal Friday morning, but given the result of that appeal, and if Kyer is cleared to play before Tuesday, he may have to get creative against the Huskies with who he puts in goal.