As the Mustangs gathered inside their locker room at halftime Thursday, coach
Curtis Lewis posed a question about the previous 45 minutes, which featured plenty of shots but no goals.
The Master's University women's soccer team has struggled at times to play at a high level for a full 90 minutes, and while Lewis was pleased with the Mustangs' performance early in Thursday's match, he wanted to be sure that wasn't the best they planned to play. Â
"He kind of asked us, 'Was this your good 45 minutes or your bad 45 minutes,'" recalled senior
Kayla Peterson. "We all just yelled, 'It was our bad 45 minutes.' We wanted to come out in the second half and be strong and put some goals in the back of the net."
Peterson went one step further, telling teammate
Kyndel Borman the Mustangs would earn a goal in the first five minutes of the second half. She was right.
Borman scored in the 49th minute, setting off a firestorm of Mustang offense that emphatically answered Lewis' question.
Master's pulled away for a 4-0 win behind two second-half goals each from Borman and Peterson, keeping the Mustangs unbeaten against Jessup since at least 2008. Master's is 12-0-2 in the series over that span.
More importantly, the Mustangs (6-3-3) secured their first Golden State Athletic Conference win of the season, evening their record at 1-1 and remaining within a game of first place for the time being.
Peterson's goals came in the 55th and 74th minutes. The second came when
Emma Hopkins laid a pass out in front of Peterson in the penalty box and Peterson sprinted onto it, one-timing it into the top portion of the net.
"I was like, 'OK, if anything, get a touch, get something on it and redirect it toward the goal,'" Peterson said. "I stuck my foot out and it went in, and I was like, 'Oh it worked.'"
For Borman, it was her third game this season with more than one goal. She leads the Mustangs with eight on the year, a number that marks a career high for the sophomore.
Her second goal Thursday came in the 79th minute when
Payton Williams launched a towering pass upfield. Borman ran onto it, controlled the ball and flicked it off the outstretched arm of keeper Camille Cavey. Â
"I think coming off losing to Vanguard when we were up 1-0 (last week), I think we knew that we needed to score and we needed to get these three points at home," Borman said. "I think that was the motivation to go out and dominate the half."
Dominate, they did. Master's outshot the Warriors 13-2 in the first half and 16-0 after the break. The backline of
Seren Tamayo,
Laura English and Williams hardly let anything through, allowing Lewis to move Peterson from her normal middle defender position to forward.
"They did a fantastic job of limiting Jessup's opportunities," said Lewis, who also praised keeper
Lacey Lehman for making a difficult save when she had to. It was Lehman's fourth shutout of the year.
The Mustangs will be home again Saturday against GSAC rival Menlo College. Game time is 11 a.m.
Â
