PRESCOTT VALLEY, Ariz. -- The Yavapai College women's soccer team, led by freshman forward
Emma Alvarez's hat trick, breezed past the Geckos of Gateway Community College 5-0 Tuesday night at Mountain Valley Park, moving its overall record to 3-3.
"I'm proud of this team," Head Coach Rozie DeWeese said. "We've had an intense week of training and it was great to see many of the things we've been working on transfer to the game today. I also loved the effort from Prescott High School alum Emma Alvarez, scoring the program's first ever hat trick."
The Roughriders scored in a frenzy in the first half, notching three goals in a ten minute span.
12 minutes in, freshman defender Emma Pascoe scored her first collegiate goal, a beautiful shot off the right post that ricocheted in the net. Freshman forward AJ Jones tallied her team-leading fifth assist on the play.
Seven minutes later, Yavapai took a 2-0 lead on a goal from Dani Mares who collected a rebound off of her own shot and then sent it past the Gecko goalkeeper. The goal was Mares' third of the season.
Two minutes after scoring, Mares assisted on Alvarez's first score of the game, a bullet to the lower-right side of the net. Alvarez's goal was also her third of the season, tying Mares for the team-lead.
After halftime, the Roughriders took a 4-0 lead on Alvarez's team-leading fourth score of the season. Just nine minutes into the second half, the freshman forward beat a couple of defenders and saw her shot hit the top-right corner of the net.
With 19 minutes left in the game, Alvarez made history by notching the first ever hat trick in Yavapai College women's soccer history. The freshman forward received a perfect cross pass from freshman midfielder Isabella Merino and distributed it to the back of the net for the remarkable feat.
With the hat trick in hand and five goals overall on the season, Alvarez and company held the Geckos off the scoresheet for the remainder of the match, bringing the final to 5-0.
Lauryn Mayhan and Franchesca Corso split the shutout in net.
Up Next
The Roughriders are back in action Saturday at 5 p.m. at Ken Lindley Field in Prescott against the Matadors of Arizona Western.
