MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — If a soccer coach could design the ideal game plan, it would look like this:
Stick a strong senior leader in goal.
Have a solid back four that anticipate well and sweep decisively.
Connect well through the midfield with active, inspired passing.
Finish with confidence and accuracy.
In Trinity’s 6-0 victory against Notre Dame on Wednesday, Warriors coach Chad Laskody enjoyed checking off all four boxes.
Dangerous from the opening minute, Trinity (11-6-1) broke through in the eighth minute with a beautiful goal. Speedy midfielder Kyle Knight stepped in front of a clearing pass, dribbled through and around an Irish defender with an eye-popping double step-over move, then slipped a lovely pass into space down the right side for striker Gabe Turak.
The nifty sophomore stepped into a one-time right footed shot that found the opposite corner for the impressive opening tally.
Continuing their solid play, Trinity scored again 11 minutes later when junior Noah Kurilko picked off a pass at the top of the box and centered to Turak, who again used an accurate right foot to carom a shot off the left post and in to double the advantage.
Shortly after in the 23rd minute, a textbook give-and-go between junior Abby Hubbard and Turak freed up space for the elusive forward to pound a rocket right foot through the keeper’s hands and in for a hat trick goal and a 3-0 lead.
Five minutes into the second half, Knight made it 4-0 on a dipping shot off a direct kick just outside the box that found the right corner. Later, the Warriors netted their fifth goal when sophomore Katrina Hyde ran onto a through ball from freshman Nathaniel Selfridge, calmly collected the pass, patiently waited for Britton to commit, then shot it through the vacated space.
A quick transition after a midfield turnover allowed Kurilko and Turak to again combine on some quality soccer, Turak running onto a final pass to space and depositing into the cage for his fourth, and the final goal of the night.
For senior keeper Fletcher Hartsock, his solo Senior Night clean sheet was a perfect reflection of the growth of Warrior soccer the past three years.
“We didn’t play very well my sophomore year,” he admitted, “but we made strides last year, and now, it’s been a really solid season so far. Every time out, we have each other’s backs, and our defensive back wall has made my life easy so many times this year. It’s all been great, but my senior year has been special, and we want to keep it going.”
Turak has seen the work in practice lead to chances and goals in games, always a welcome result.
“We’re putting in the work,” he smiled, “and we have plenty of speed and quality players out there to spread the field, play to space, connect to feet, and work together. I just happened to be on the end of some great passes tonight, but there are lots of my teammates who I can set up next time. When we’re playing like this, it’s a lot of fun.”
Laskody was especially gratified by the quality of the passes that led to goals, and the mentality of his team throughout.
“In the past, we’d let teams hang around in games like this,” he explained. “Tonight, we competed and worked at a high level the whole game, and played with confidence and conviction. We think we’ve finally found a line-up that puts our players where they belong for us to produce our best soccer, and that’s what we hope to do every time out.”
The Warriors face St. Marys at home at 5 p.m. Monday.
