Youth is served in Lady Hawks 9-1 win over Loudonville as Raber gets hat trick
By Dave Mast
August 27, 2011
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0x397e8e000x37c917200x39832ef0Coming into the Hiland Lady Hawks soccer game versus Loudonville on Saturday, August 27 on the Redbirds home field, head coach Pat Miller was looking for some offensive sparks from sophomore Kaitlyn Raber, whom he stuck into the starting lineup for the first time in her career.
Raber paid immediate dividends, driving home three goals for the hat trick in her first career start.
Kate played awesome and Julie played really well too, said forward Mackenzie Miller, who scored one of Hilands nine goals.
Miller agreed with that assessment, and said of his teams overall effort, We played really well today. Our defense stepped up well and our offense worked extremely hard for each other.
After having five second-half goals scored against them in the opening season loss to Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy, the elder Raber and the Lady Hawks defense have played exceedingly well, giving up just one goal in three halves in wins over Canton McKinley and the Redbirds.
I think that second half kind of made us mad and more determined to go out and play harder, said Miller. After that coach really challenged us to step our game up mentally.
The defense certainly has done just that, and as for the offense, the younger Raber led a barrage of goals that put plenty of distance between the two teams that have had a number of close contests over the years.
Aside from Rabers hat trick, Irelie Riggle and Josie Beachy each scored a pair of goals, and Miller and Jelayna Hershberger both found the back of the net. Assists came from Sarah Haun, who had two, and Riggle, Allison Hochstetler and even goalie Julie Raber, who all tacked on one apiece.
We really played well all around, said midfielder Hannah Anderson. I think we came in very mentally prepared and everyone did their job. It was a fun game.
