Reinhardt Too Strong For Koalas in Saturday Thrashing

By Mike DeVader, Reinhardt Director of Athletic Communications & Media

COLUMBIA, S.C. – The Eagle offense continued to roll through the competition on Saturday afternoon, as Reinhardt combined stellar scoring with more smothering defense to run away from Columbia (S.C.), 9-0, in Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) action.

The Koalas fell victim to another dominant performance from the hometown team – making it three-straight squads to fail to score on the Eagles (4-1, 4-1 AAC) in the month of October.

"We have had a lot of great teams over the years at Reinhardt," head coach Andy Kaplan said. "This year's team has a chance to be as good as any of them due to our depth. Twenty-two players played at least 30 minutes. We do not like to run the score up on anyone, but every player who came off the bench played as well as the starters.

"It was a great performance by the entire team."

Reinhardt headed into the locker room ahead, 2-0, at halftime after Marta Vicente-Arche got the team on the board first from Adriana Garcia. The lead doubled after Brianna Smotherman hit the back of the net off a good assist from Kalyn Donegan.

An own-goal from the Koalas got them in an even deeper hole to begin the second half. Smotherman then shared the wealth and found a streaking teammate – Kaitlyn Lauk – for a 4-0 advantage. The scoring wasn't done there, either, as Aryn Parrish got a tally of her own before Garcia hit back-to-back shots to make it 7-0.

The depth on the Eagle sideline continued to flex its muscles on both sides of the ball, and as the shutout continued on the defensive end, the shots kept firing at the Columbia goalkeeper.

Ashley Hand would break away from the defense and get her name in the scorebook for an 8-0 lead, and then Jasmine Usher put a bow on the matchup after she took a feed from Lauk and made it count.

The team comes back to Ken White Field at University Stadium for the first time in nearly three weeks when it hosts Bryan (Tenn.) on Oct. 21 at 5 p.m. 

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