SAN ANTONIO — Three goals in less than three minutes helped lift the St. Mary's University Women's Soccer team to a 6-0 victory over Sul Ross State and placed Head Coach
Kevin Driggs second on the St. Mary's career victories chart with win No. 51.
Driggs, who won the 50th game of his career on Saturday, followed that with win 51 on Wednesday, passing Lance Noble (1996-99) for second on the coaching wins list. He now trails only Corwin Ritch, who won 159 matches in his 19 seasons with the Rattlers (2001-19).
The Rattlers (5-4-1, 4-3-0) won their fourth-straight match with the lopsided victory, finding the back of the net early and often, scoring four times in the first 29 minutes. The four-match winning streak is the second-longest active streak in the Lone Star Conference behind the 11 straight wins by DBU.
Senior
Shelby Paniagua (Cibolo, Texas) recorded the second hat-trick of her career, scoring twice on penalty kicks and once on a 20-yard shot in the 29th minute that she lasered back into the top of the net off an attempted clearance by the Lobos (1-9-0, 0-6-0).
Junior
Elena Kossler (Ötztal-Bahnhof, Austria) added a brace, giving her five goals in the last three games and three straight game-winners. She started the scoring for the Gold and Blue with a breakaway from midfield in the 18th minute, beating a pair of defenders as she cut to the far side of the field and shot back to the near side of the net. Kossler got fouled on a second breakaway in the box, setting up Paniagua's PK in the 19th minute. Less than 90 seconds later, freshman
Marily Garza Contreras (Duncanville, Texas) lobbed a pass perfectly from the midline to just outside the box, which Kossler netted with her left foot.
Paniagua scored the next two, in the 29th minute and the 62nd minute, when she added a second penalty kick after she was fouled inside the box. Sophomore
Mackenzie Arendall (Boerne, Texas) fired the final dagger, taking a beautiful cross from senior
Bella Brigman (San Antonio) and placing it in the middle of the net in the 87th minute for the 6-0 win.
It is the first goal of Arendall's career, and the first assist for Brigman. Garza Contreras tallied her second assist of the season, while Paniagua jumped three spots from eighth to fifth in school history with 26 goals. Paniagua passes former teammate Juni Ejere (25 goals, 2021-23), Amy Hocking (24, 1997-99) and Natalie Moore (24, 2000-03) on the career chart.
For most of the evening, the two Rattlers' goalkeepers, senior
Haley Faucette (Burlington, N.C.) and redshirt freshman
Quetza Garza (Dallas) were vocal leaders in the backfield, though they each made one save. Faucette was in goal for 59 minutes, while Garza spent the last 31 in between the pipes.
St. Mary's took 33 shots, with a season-high 21 shots on goal, almost doubling the previous season high of 11 shots on goal from the 5-1 win against East Central on Sept. 13.
The Rattlers travel to San Angelo to face Angelo State on Saturday at 1 p.m. The Rambelles had the bye on Wednesday and are winners of their last three matches.
