Lady Trappers defeat Jayhawk foes

The Northwest College women’s soccer team matched its win total from last year on the opening weekend of the 2011 season. The Trappers defeated Garden City 5-0 on Saturday to open the year, then defeated tournament host Barton by a 3-1 count on Sunday.

“We played extremely well, the girls battled for everything,” said Trapper women’s interim coach Kaylin Olivas. “It was truly an outstanding weekend for us. We just played our game, didn’t let them get into our heads and came out on top.”

For much of the weekend, the Trappers weren’t even challenged.

In the opener against Garden City (9-7-2 last season), Samiha Simao opened the scoring for Northwest in the 32nd minute, winning a one-on-one situation.

“She got the ball, made a turn and went and scored,” Olivas said of the Simao’s first official collegiate goal. The freshman from Brazil had two in exhibition action leading up to the opening weekend.

Four minutes later, Cody’s Lindsey Neiters fed Gemma Alexander, who caught everyone, especially the Garden City keeper, by surprise when she fired a shot from some 40 yards out. The long-distance goal gave Northwest a 2-0 lead at intermission.

The Trappers found their offense earlier in the second half. Simao received a feed from Mariam Gelderloos at the top of the box, lost her defender and won the ensuing one-on-one against the keeper in the 52nd minute. Gelderloos got involved again three minutes later, taking a corner kick from Sydney Heckel and one-timing it into the back of the net for a 4-0 NWC lead.

The Trappers’ final goal came in the 88th minute as Powell sophomore Katie Kipp held the ball at the edge of the 18-yard box before sending it in to Gelderloos who, after a touch, beat the keeper with a far-post shot.

Sunday’s game against Barton (14-7 last season) saw a flurry of action in the first half before both teams settled in.

Neiters took a ball wide in the fifth minute and made a one-touch crossing pass to Silverstone, who buried it in the net for a quick one-goal lead for NWC. That same combination hooked up again in the 20th minute to give Northwest a two-goal lead.

That score sparked a flurry of action as Barton countered just two minutes later to halve the Trappers lead. Not to be outdone, Alexander played a through ball to Simao in the 25th minute. Simao outran her defender to the ball and again beat the keeper on a one-on-one for the game’s final goal.

Sunday’s victory was even more impressive considering the Trappers were without starting defender Hali Henwood. The Douglas freshman took a kick off the thigh in Saturday’s opener and was still feeling the effects as Northwest took pregame on Sunday. Olivas said the decision to juggle Northwest’s starting lineup came approximately 30 minutes before the opening kick.

“She just had a dead leg from the kick,” said Olivas, noting the injury isn’t expected to impact Henwood’s availability when Northwest opens Region IX play at Western Wyoming later this week.

“Lauren Madden, Jen Berg and Haley Ahrenholtz did well at center-back in that game for us,” said Olivas. “The girls responded very well to the change, and that’s good. There’s always going to be little things like that because every game is a battle.”

Next up for the Trapper women will be a battle against Region IX foe Western Wyoming. The contest will be a Wednesday afternoon affair in Rock Springs.