In a matchup of rivals and likely playoff contenders, Belton dominated from start to finish in a 6-0 victory over Temple on Friday night at Wilson-Kerzee Field.
The Tem-Cats (5-5-1 overall, 1-1 in 13-5A) trailed only 2-0 at intermission thanks to effective man-to-man marking, but they never put a shot on goal and possessed the ball on the offensive half of the field for less than 5 of the 80 minutes.
“It’s just a matter of, ‘How long can you hold their girls off?’ They have an incredible amount of talent out there,” Temple coach Oscar Bersoza said. “This is one we weren’t expected to win anyway.
“We’ll move on. It’s tough because they’re a rival, and every time we step on the field we want to win. But when we set our goals at the beginning of the season, this isn’t one we were banking on.”
The Lady Tigers (13-2, 2-0), who have lost one district match in three-plus seasons, totaled 19 shots and wore down Temple’s defense.
“With them man-marking, it’s so hard to keep up and you eventually wear them down,” Belton coach Barry Elkins said. “We possessed the ball for so long in the first half. Then once we got that first goal of the second half, you could see it because it went boom, boom, boom.”
The booms in reference were three goals in a 2-minute span.
After Temple goalkeeper Katy Houchin got a piece of Chelsea Jones’ arching shot, Dalaine Whitlock guided it in along the goal line for a 3-0 lead 14 minutes into the second half.
Erica Michaud booted home her second goal of the night less than a minute later, then followed up with a record-setting assist.
Michaud’s one-touch assist on Jones’ goal with 24 minutes left pushed her atop the Belton career assist list with 43.
Lexy Smith capped the scoring 8 minutes later.
“Everybody’s on the same page this year. That’s the biggest difference,” said Elkins, whose squad has made back-to-back Class 5A Region II quarterfinal appearances. “And we have girls that we can bring off the bench that could be starting. Everybody we have can play.”
Belton went up 1-0 in the 11th minute on Kali Hellinghausen’s header off a Tori Seiler free kick.
Temple’s Samantha Kirchhoff, Marissa Cervantes and Kaitlyn Muniz turned away several Lady Tiger attacks before Michaud made it 2-0 with a low, driving shot into the right corner from 21 yards out.
“It never feels good when you lose, especially to a rival,” Bersoza said. “But we have bigger games coming up.”
NOTES: Temple will host Killeen Ellison at Woodson Field on Tuesday, when Belton hosts Killeen Shoemaker at Wilson-Kerzee. . . . Michaud broke the career assist record previously held by Madison Toone.
edrennan@temple-telegram.com
