Box Score NATCHITOCHES – The Northwestern State offense erupted Friday night when a total team effort gave the soccer team a 9-1 win over Louisiana College in the season opener at the Lady Demons Soccer Complex in front of 1,109 fans.
 
"One thing we keep empathizing with our defense is that the harder we work the more chances we will have to score goals," said head coach George Van Linder. "We did that tonight.
 
"A lot of the people whose name did not appear in the stat sheet did a ton of the work," he said. "They were playing good balls into our attackers to get those opportunities."
 
Northwestern State outshot the Lady Wildcats 28-2 for the game, and never let LC into its side of the field during the entire second half. Of NSU's 28 shots, 18 were on goal.
 
"A big thing for us is that we are not the biggest, fastest or tallest team, but we talk about working hard to get two or three people on the ball," said Van Linder. "One thing we really appreciated was our crowd tonight.  People came out, and it really made a difference for us."
 
Sophomore Camila Ardila scored the match's first goal in the ninth minute on an unassisted goal.  Just over a minute later, Harmon Jayme tied the game for Louisiana College on an unaided goal. From there, NSU would go to score four more goals in the first half.
 
Freshman Sage Leffew, who was one of seven freshmen to start the match, broke the tie on a header from a corner kick by Nikki Saunders in the 23^rd minute.  Julia Ranalli scored her first goal of the season in the 31^st minute, and then assisted on the next two goals.
 
Peyton Rector scored with Ranalli's help in the 33^rd minute, and both teamed up to assist Cache Haley on her first career goal.
 
Shannon Danku opened the second half with a goal in the 66^th minute on an assist by Camila Ardila right in front of the goal. Saunders added another assist in the 73^rd minute to get Payton Roney her first career goal.
 
Esdenia Gonzalez scored back-to-back goals on two perfect crosses from Mackenna Richardson and Ranalli.  Both passes drew out the LC goalkeeper and allowed Gonzalez to chip in both scores.
 
Louisiana College went through three goalkeepers, Zoe Hollier, Shelby Schneider and Mikaela Sunderson.  
 
Northwestern State played two goalkeepers, Alex Latham and Brooke Bourbonais.  Each played for a half, and Bourbonais never faced a shot. Latham made on save and allowed one goal.
 
Ardila led Northwestern State with six shots, followed by Gonzalez and Saunders who each had three. Yanci Johnson, Roney, Brooke Eastburg, Ranalli and Danku all had two attempts apiece.  The Lady Demons were able to get play 28 players in the match.