Avila Shuts Out Sterling on Soggy Saturday in Kansas City

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Brooke Clark and Alexis Lausch scored their first goals as Eagles, Olivia Seston and the defense pitched a shutout in her second straight start, and Avila women's soccer (3-6-0, 3-1-0 KCAC) blanked Sterling (4-4-0, 1-3-0 KCAC) 2-0 on a rain-soaked Saturday afternoon in Kansas City.

Ever-present rain all morning across the area affected the start time twice on Saturday afternoon, but once the game got started the Eagles quickly established themselves as the better team. This is not the KCAC basement-dwelling Warrior team of the past – this season's Sterling team was much improved from the one that the Eagles defeated at The Z less than 11 months ago – but the Eagles were still far too much for the Warriors to handle.

Avila out-shot Sterling 25-9 and forced reigning KCAC saves leader Shaylee Gibbs into 11 stops – including a few top quality ones – and the Eagles dominated on set pieces, holding Sterling without a corner kick opportunity and scoring on one of their nine corner chances – the third time in four conference games the Eagles have scored from the flag.

That was how the Eagles broke through a little after the half-hour mark Saturday. Amaris Sigler's corner delivered to the near-side right post was headed home by centerback Brooke Clark – the two longtime friends combined for their first goal as collegiate teammates to get the Eagles on the board.

It took until about that point of the second half for the Eagles to finally add some insurance, but once they did that all but sealed the win for the home side. Maddylen Farris found enough space on the right wing to loft a cross into the box and Alexis Lausch, seeing her first action of the game, got on the end of the pass and blasted her shot past Gibbs to double Avila's lead with her first goal as an Eagle in the 69^th minute.

That was all the margin the Eagles would need, but Seston, who had a pretty straightforward day last weekend against McPherson, had to work a fair bit harder to earn her second straight clean sheet. The sophomore netminder was ultimately credited with seven saves, two of which came in rapid succession midway through the first half when Seston robbed top Sterling goal scorer Jessica Gautreau and then recovered to take away a rebound from Emma Bartha. Just about a minute later, Sigler set up Clark for the game's first goal, which became the game-winner, leading the Eagles to their third victory of the KCAC campaign.

Looming next, however, is the KCAC's top dog, national powerhouse Oklahoma Wesleyan, which heads into Kansas City for a Wednesday doubleheader between the league's two Eagle squads. Avila's chance for two marquee wins starts with the women's game at 1 PM, followed by the men's game at 3:30; as always, admission to soccer games at The Z is free, and you can watch all the action live and for free wherever you are on the Avila Sports Network with Tim Hackett and Max Williams on the call from Kansas City.