By Josh Staloch
Correspondent
ASHWAUBENON – Green Bay Southwest junior Ella Siegle netted four goals in the Trojans 6-0 Fox River Classic Conference road victory over Ashwaubenon May 11.
The win improved the Trojans to 3-0 early in the season.
“It’s early in the season, so we’re still working with some new pieces,” said Southwest head coach Jay Draves. “What we talked about at halftime was how to possess the ball. We had a game (May 10) and our legs were tired tonight – we needed to let the ball do the work today.”
Early in the match, both teams controlled the ball evenly, with neither team able to threaten the other’s keeper.
The first chance of the game came from the left side of the Southwest attack when Gabby Siudzinski got a good look, only to be denied by Kyera Thao, who started in goal for the Jaguars.
Shortly after, Ashwaubenon’s Nadia Perez, using some good footwork, got a chance from the right side, but Southwest keeper Lucy Lindstrom made the save.
About midway through the first half, the Southwest offense seemed to settle into a rhythm, putting consistent pressure on the Jaguars.
The Trojans’ hustle paid off in the 24th minute when Siegle took the ball in the middle of the field from nearly 20 yards out and lofted a perfect strike over Thao’s hands.
Perez did all she could to answer back for Ashwaubenon when she used her footwork again to get into position for a shot on her team’s following possession, only to be swarmed by the Southwest defenders before she could square up.
This resulted in big momentum for the Trojans, who set up shop in the Ashwaubenon zone and took a couple of shots on goal before Addi Curran got ahold of a rebound and blasted one into the net for a 2-0 lead before halftime.
The Southwest offense needed less than two minutes of play in the second half to get Siegle in scoring position again, where she scored from the right side of the field.
Seven minutes later, she did it again, going top shelf with a kick to the back of the goal, despite being draped by two defenders.
Goal number five came less than 90 seconds later when Aubrie Selsmeyer made the most of a breakaway chance on the left side of the goal and put a shot past the keeper.
Siegle would wrap up the scoring later with another powerful strike from the middle.
“It depends on the night,” said Draves when asked about Siegle’s outburst. “The night before, Aubrie was our go-to option. Today, it was Ella. This is a group, for the most part, that came together two years ago as freshmen and now they’re juniors. They’re finding themselves and playing together. They’ve been doing it for years, and it’s starting to show on the field.”