CLAREMONT – Stevens girls soccer (10-3) played host to Monadnock (0-12) on Wednesday night, and the Cardinals soared to their eleventh win of the season by winning 11-0.
Coming into the game with 27 goals on the season, Cardinals’ senior Audrey Puksta needed four goals to break Amy Zombeck’s 1993 record of scoring 30 goals in a season. Although Puksta fell shy of breaking the record, she still managed to post a hat-trick to tie Zombeck’s all-time Stevens record for most goals netted in a single season.
Zombeck is currently the head coach of women’s soccer at UMass Boston.
In the game Wednesday night, Stevens seemed relaxed and able to have fun out on the field after losing two of their last three games. They out-shot Monadnock 38-0, and won the corner-battle 13-0.
Even with the dominating performance, the Stevens coaches tipped their caps to the opposing team for improving during the 2018 season.
“I give those [Monadnock] girls credit,” said Stevens assistant coach Steve McManus. “They came out and really gave effort… you got to respect that.”
“From the first time we played them, they have improved quite a bit,” added Cardinals head coach Tom Belaire. “… Especially in that first half, they came out looking pretty good.”
After the first half, Stevens only led by a score of 3-0, as Puksta found the back of the net twice and Elle Grenier scored with her left foot.
Coach Belaire emphasized after the game that he wanted his team to come out with more firepower in the second half. He said, “We wanted to work on some things tonight and hopefully gain some more confidence. We were trying to play with more intensity in the second half, so we wanted to pick up the pace of the game a little bit.”
The Cardinals picked up the pace, and then some. They constantly had the Monadnock defense on its heels and racked up eight goals.
Goal scorers in the second half: Brooke Bonneau (assisted by Puksta); Sydney Miller; Puksta; Tanner Brown scored twice (one assisted by Sydney Miller); freshman Hannah Miller recorded a hat-trick (one assisted by Grenier).
Puksta still has two games left to try and tackle the 25-year-old record, as Stevens travels to Sunapee (13-1) Monday for a local showdown of top-tier soccer programs, and then will host Hillsboro-Deering for Senior Night on Wednesday to cap off the regular season.
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