GARDEN CITY – The Hutchinson Community College women’s soccer team celebrated a third-straight week as the No. 1 team in the country by posting the ninth shutout of the season on Wednesday at Garden City.
Hutchinson won its 10th-game in a row in defeating Garden City 8-0 at Memorial Stadium, holding the Broncbusters without a single shot in the game until 15 seconds remained when sophomore Emily Soza had to make a save.
Now 10-0 and 9-0 in the Jayhawk Conference, the Lady Dragons blanketed a short-handed Garden City team in posting the 89th all-time shutout in program history.
Offensively, freshman Danielle Sheehy had her eighth multi-goal game of the season with a pair of goals. Freshman Stephany Cushing also had two goals and an assist.
Sophomore Nicole Cronin had a goal and three assists. Sophomore Melissa Hetherington had a goal and one assist. Freshman Courtney Gahagan added a goal.
Sophomore goalkeeper Eunice Figueroa started the game and earned her 20th career victory, becoming the third keeper in Lady Dragon soccer history with at least 20 career wins.
Hutchinson out-shot Garden City 32-1, putting 15 shots on goal. The Lady Dragons led 5-0 at halftime.
Hetherington earned her third game-winning goal of the season when she scored 3 minutes, 40 seconds into the game on a Cronin assist. Cushing scored unassisted in the 10th minute to go up 2-0.
Sheehy then scored the next two, her 26th and 27th goals of the season on assists from Hetherington and Cronin, respectively. Cronin’s goal in the 39th minute gave HCC a 5-0 lead.
Cushing netted her second goal of the game when her cross was deflected in by a Garden City player right in front. Cronin finished off her three-assist and five-point game by feeding Gahagan in the 62nd minute.
Garden City was credited with an own goal when Cushing played a through-ball into the box that a Garden City defender made a bad clear on and the ball sailed over the head of Buster keeper Karassa Prochaska and into the goal.
The Lady Dragons return home to face Cowley College at 4 p.m. on Wednesday at the USD 308 Complex.
GAME NOTES – HCC is now 14-0 all-time vs. Garden City, the most wins against any single foe. HCC has outscored Garden City 78-5 in series history. … The Lady Dragons reach the 10-win mark for the eighth-straight season. … Now with 27 goals, Danielle Sheehy has moved into second place on the single-season goals list. She now owns the single-season team record for multi-goal games at nine and she is now into the career Top 10 in points with 68. That is ninth on the career list. … Melissa Hetherington’s 17 goals is ninth on the single-season goals list.
(HCC Sports Information)
