BATON ROUGE, La. – Five different Warhawks scored as the ULM soccer team cruised to a 5-1 win over Southern Wednesday night at Jaguar Park.
"All in all, I was proud of the way the team bounced back after a rough start," head coach Keyton Wheelock said.
ULM (3-3-1) came out of the gate quickly when Madi Garza took a shot four minutes into the game. The ball zoomed toward the top of the net, but was saved by Chioma Eriken. That lit a fire under Southern (1-5) and the Jaguars proceeded to fire two back-to-back shots after having a foul called on them.
The Warhawks bounced back and saw Bailey Botkin, Amanda Castillo, Melissa Taft, Erika Wiest and Blake DelaMater all take shots within 10 minutes of each other. Camryn Ciaramella was able to find the back of the net at the 36 minute mark for her second goal of the season to give ULM a 1-0 lead heading into halftime.
The Warhawks weren't done yet and kept the pressure turned up. Mackenzie Bell raced down the field and scored another goal for ULM four minutes into the second half. Garza and Taft both scored back-to-back goals four minutes later to give ULM a 4-0 lead.
"We had five goals from five different players," Wheelock said. "Madi got her first collegiate goal and it was probably one of our prettiest goals tonight."
Southern didn't have an answer for the Warhawks' fast-paced attack and Rahel Zerazion would score ULM's final goal 75 minutes into the game to give the Warhawks a 5-0 lead. The Jaguars would finally get on the board 86 minutes into the game with a goal by Aniya Clark.
"We need to make sure we're playing all 90 minutes," Wheelock said. "We gave up a goal in the final minutes and can't be making silly mistakes."
ULM will look to keep the momentum going as they open conference play against Arkansas State on Friday at 7 p.m. in Brown Stadium.
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