By Wes Bloomquist  ||  wes.bloomquist@angelo.edu

SAN ANGELO – Describing this one as dominant is an understatement.

Loni Byers led Angelo State with two goals in a game where six of her teammates also scored as the No. 14-ranked Angelo State soccer team rolled to an 8-0 non-conference win over Oklahoma Christian on Friday at the ASU Soccer Field to extend the best start in program history.

The Rambelles (5-0) have now outscored their opponents 24-3 this season and have seen 14 players score through the first five games. ASU scored seven of its eight goals in the first half against the Eagles (0-6-1) and has now outscored its opponents 17-1 in the opening 45 minutes this season.

"Our offensive execution in the first half was tremendous," ASU head coach Travis McCorkle said. "It took us about 20 minutes to get going, but we made some changes and once we got on the same page we started to roll. We had some quality goals that were great to see."

Angelo State returns to action at 1 p.m. on Sunday against St. Mary's (1-3) at the ASU Soccer Field. A win over the Rattlers would match the longest winning streak at any point in a season for ASU which hasn't won six straight game since running off six straight victories in the 2009 season.

Byers, a freshman from Murrieta, California, recorded her first multi-goal game of her career with her two goals against OC and now has three on the season. Byers scored the second goal of the game from 20 yards out on an assist from Selena Alvarez just three minutes after she had assisted on a Jenny Kotowych goal in the 20th minute of play. Kotowych's goal was her first this season and sixth of her career.

"I think we did a great job of finding each other up front and giving each other opportunities," Byers said. "This is what we're working for when we are out there practicing. We put in a lot of practice on our runs and placements of shots so that in games we can get it done."

Brittany Martinez added to ASU's lead with the third goal of her career off a corner kick in the 26th minute and Cynthia Andrews quickly made it a 4-0 lead with a header off a pass from Haley Mendel. Alvarez followed Andrews with a header of her own on a pass from Martinez off another corner in the 41st minute and Elizabeth Rodriguez took a cross from Mendel and put it in the net to give ASU a 6-0 advantage. Just 29 seconds later it was Mendel taking a pass from Rodriguez for the seventh goal of the first half and the seventh of the season for this week's Lone Star Conference Offensive Player of the Week.

"Our team did a great job of putting pressure on them by going strong to the ball all the time," Rodriguez said. "We were communicating and opening up for each other to put each other in great position. Scoring is always fun and we did a great job of being in position to give ourselves opportunities to add to our lead."

Byers finished off the scoring on a shot which deflected off an OC defender in the 46th minute of action and the ASU defense kept the clamps down the remainder of the game to preserve the 8-0 shutout win. The shutout is the third of the season for the Rambelles and the first in the career of goalkeeper Natalie Nielsen who played the entire game in goal. With ASU in complete control, Nielsen faced only one shot the entire 90 minutes of play as the Rambelles held a 24-1 shot advantage. Sierra Anderson and Alvarez led ASU with five shots each, while Byers had four and Kotowych put pressure on the Eagles with three shots.

Mendel, who leads the LSC with seven goals this season, now also leads the conference in assists after her two-assist performance against OC. With a total of 17 points through five games, she is six points ahead of Texas Woman's Natalia Diaz who is in second place in the conference in points and 11 points in front of Candice Davies of TWU. Byers is fifth in the conference with seven points with her three goals and one assist.  

"We have a standard to which we always try to play and that is unaffected by the team we are playing," McCorkle said. "I thought our girls never let up and did a great job of executing what we were trying to accomplish."
 
A Little Historical Perspective
The eight goals are the most for Angelo State since a 14-0 win over Howard Payne in the 2006 season and they matched an 8-0 win over College of the Southwest in the 2007 season. They are the most goals in the McCorkle coaching era. Also, the 17 goals in a five-game span are the most since the 2002 team had a five-game run of 26 goals which were bolstered by a 19-0 win over Texas-Permian Basin. Despite winning the LSC championship last season, the Rambelles scored only 27 goals throughout their 18-game schedule.