Box Score SAN ANTONIO — Home sweet home.
St. Mary's Women's Soccer was back on the St. Mary's University campus for a regular-season game for the first time since 2010 — and the Lady Rattlers gave their home crowd something to cheer about in Saturday's Heartland Conference opener.
Kaitie Kasperitis connected twice, including on a wild header late in the game, and
Jamey Coronado also scored as St. Mary's thumped Newman 3-0 before nearly 100 fans at the intramural field.
"The excitement and energy of playing on the St. Mary's University campus for the first time in three years brought us to another level," said Rattlers head coach
Corwyn Ritch, whose squad hopes to debut at the brand-new Sigma Beta Chi Field later this month. "A player like
Kaitie Kasperitis is a junior and this was the first time she's ever put on a jersey for St. Mary's University on our campus for an official game.
"Playing at home, your level of play, intensity and desire picks up because you're at home. We've been missing out on that and now we have it and you saw what they can do with that."
Alyssa Taramona pitched the shutout in the net for St. Mary's (4-4-1, 1-0 in Heartland Conference), saving four shots in the game. The Rattlers were the aggressor all game, and could have doubled their scoring output if not for the fantastic play of Newman goalie Haley Borchers, who had 13 saves, including a handful of the diving variety.
Freshman
Kristal Williams helped lead St. Mary's offensive attack with one assist and a trio of shots, while Kasperitis had a team-high seven shots in the game. In all, St. Mary's outshot Newman 27-6.
With the two goals, Kasperitis now has eight on the season to extend her conference lead. She also moved into the No. 2 slot all-time in St. Mary's history for career goals, tying Natalie Moore with 24. Kasperitis is 10 goals shy of Kyle Hyslop's program record of 34.
Against Newman, St. Mary's led 1-0 at the break following Kasperitis' unassisted goal in the 21
st minute. The Rattlers extended their lead in the second half, as Coronado landed an unassisted goal in the 58
th minute. Kasperitis made it 3-0 by heading in Williams' assist with four minutes left in the game.
All before their home crowd.
"We had a lot of friends, family, and for the first time in a long time, the St. Mary's student body watching us play here at home," Ritch said. "I think we put on a good show for them. Watching the quality of play and creating as many opportunities as we had, they'll remember that watching soccer is a fun sport to watch."
St. Mary's University, as a Catholic Marianist University, fosters the formation of people in faith and educates leaders for the common good through community service, integrated liberal arts and professional education, and academic excellence. The University has six athletic national titles: men's basketball (1989–NAIA), baseball (2001–NCAA Div. II), softball (1986–NAIA and 2002–NCAA Div. II) and an individual national champion in men's golf (2006–NCAA Div. II) and a national academic championship in men's golf (2009–NCAA Div. II). St. Mary's also had more than 40 percent of its athletes named to conference, regional and/or national honor rolls this past year. St. Mary's student–athletes graduation rate is 65 percent, higher than the NCAA Division II average of 55 percent. To learn more about St. Mary's, visit www.rattlerathletics.com.
