Women's Soccer Explodes for Five Goals on Opening Night

SAN ANTONIO – After an extremely strong preseason showing, the St. Mary's University Women's Soccer team kept the momentum rolling with a 5-0 victory against East Central on Thursday night in the season opener.
 
Sophomore Shelby Paniagua (Cibolo, Texas) almost matched her freshman season point total in one match, scoring five points on two goals and an assist. A year ago, she totaled six points in 20 games. Paniagua scored the first goal of the night in the 17th minute on a feed from Natalie Gonzalez from well outside the box, hitting the high right corner of the net. 
 
The Rattlers didn't score again until the 64th minute of the contest as freshman Kendall Hall (Tomball, Texas) nailed the center of the net on a short squib kick from senior Juni Ejere (Weatherford, Texas) for the 2-0 advantage.
 
Less than 20 seconds later, Paniagua scored her second goal of the night on a penalty kick into the bottom left of the net.
 
Sophomore Sydney Varela (El Paso, Texas) got in on the scoring in the 67th minute when she took a pass from midfield by senior Jackie Miller (El Paso) and headed it into the bottom left corner of the goal.
 
The fifth and final goal of the evening came off the foot of sophomore Valerie Hover (McKinney, Texas) as she scored the first of her career in the 74th minute. Hover took a free kick from Paniagua and headed it off the crossbar and into the goal.
 
Defensively, junior goalkeeper Rebecca Difronzo (Bari, Italy) didn't get many chances as the Tigers managed only two shots all night and none on goal. The Rattlers dominated time of possession and recorded 21 total shots with nine on goal.
 
St. Mary's remains at home hosting Mississippi College on Saturday at Noon. The Lady Choctaws posted a scoreless draw at Texas A&M International on Thursday evening in Laredo.