MYERSTOWN - First-year coach Katie Stafiej got her Palmyra girls' soccer team off on the right foot with a 6-0 win Tuesday afternoon in a non-league, season-opening scrimmage at Elco.
The action resembled one-way traffic for much of the game as junior Cougar Hanah Soucy broke loose for three goals and an assist, the first goal coming barely a minute into the game. Other goals came from Mara Bowman, Erin Kulp and Riley Cook.
It was Soucy's first soccer action in more than a year. She sat out last season with a knee injury, after helping Palmyra to a 15-5 record her freshman year.
Soucy's speed and elusiveness were no match for the young back line of coach Derek Fulk's Raiders.
"Soucy's the real deal," said Fulk. "She's a good player."
Her ability to get behind the Elco defense and go one-on-one was also a byproduct of the midfield play of senior Lucy Krikorian and junior Emily Salvaggio. Senior forward Anna Kauffman also made effective diagonal runs that stretched the Elco defense.
The only negative for Palmyra was an abundance of offside infractions that nearly reached double digits.
"How many offsides is that?" asked Stafiej after the eighth one. "Eight? That's too many. We have to be more patient."
The Palmyra defense of senior goalie Katy McClellan, a Mid-Penn Keystone Division all-star last year, center backs Tabitha Fake and Hannah Bowman and outside backs Kulp, Alexis Stuck, and Tori Norton kept the Elco attack at bay. McClellan had no trouble getting the clean sheet with two easy saves.
The only concern was when Soucy came off the field in the first half dragging her leg. She said she tweaked her knee going around the goalie on her third goal. She returned to play in the second half.
"It's sore right now," she said, after the game, "but I think it'll be OK."
Stafiej, with prior coaching experience in Maryland, replaced coach Amber Miller, who took Palmyra to the PIAA-AA playoffs last year for the first time. Because of increased female enrollment, the Palmyra girls were promoted to AAA for the District 3 playoffs.