INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - The Maple Leafs women's soccer season ended on Saturday night in the Crossroads League Quarterfinals, as one-seed Marian defeated eight-seed Goshen 4-0. Marian is now 16-0-2 this season and have outscored their opponents 62-10.
Naomi Walters had a hat trick just twenty-six minutes into the game, but the Leafs only allowed one penalty kick goal for the rest of the contest. Walters split two defenders on a breakaway for the first goal in the 15th minute. Her second came in the 23rd minute as the shot spun off of Gracie Garcia's gloves and found the back of the net. Then just three minutes and five seconds later, she scored her third and final goal. A shot bounced off Garcia and then a Goshen defender before Walters scored from her left foot. Jacelyn Smith, Maya Decker, and Erin Oleksak had the assists on the three goals. Walters put another one in but it was called back due to an offsides call.
Goshen took a very methodical approach early on, passing the ball around the defenders as they looked to set up chances. As Marian's goals came through, the Maple Leafs played more aggressively - as shown by two corner kicks with about ten minutes to go in the first half. Goshen had three first half shots.
The Knights had 14 first half shots, but were held to just six in the second half. The only second half scoring came from a penalty kick scored by Isabelle Stanfield, her second goal of the season. Garcia made nine saves for GC. Marian won 4-0 after winning the regular season matchup 6-0.
Seja Lang and Alexsandra Fernandes both had shots on goal and Karitas Arnardottir also recorded a shot. The Leafs finish the year with a 5-12-1 record - beating Huntington 1-0 during the last game of the regular season to earn a spot in the conference tournament. Marian will now host the five-seed Huntington on Wednesday, November 9, at 7:00 pm. The Trojans beat Indiana Wesleyan 2-1 in the first round.