Knudson’s hat trick helps QHS girls soccer team continue recent momentum with blowout of Sterling

QUINCY — After Saturday’s 5-1 victory against Jacksonville, the Quincy High School girls soccer team wanted to continue the momentum Tuesday night at Flinn Stadium in Western Big 6 Conference play.

Leah Knudson’s hat trick helped accomplish that in an 8-0 victory over Sterling.

The Blue Devils (5-6) started strong, with the first goal coming in the third minute of the game. Avery Morrison assisted Knudson, who was unmarked in front of the goal and sent Morrison’s pass into the back of the net.

The goal set the tone for the rest of the game: possession by Quincy, near-constant pressure on Sterling’s defense and the ball remaining in front of the Golden Warriors’ goal. By the end of the game, the Blue Devils totaled 16 shots while the Golden Warriors only clocked one.

“Coming out and scoring eight goals, yo;u’ve got to be happy with that,” QHS coach Travis Dinkheller said. “Having the high standards that I do, I want to continue to work on pinging the ball around, a little more possession.”

Knudson and Teriss Farran made an impressive duo on the left side of the field, weaving and passing with one another to get the ball up the field.

“We definitely kept up that momentum,” Morrison said. “We kept scoring.”

Quincy went ahead 6-0 in the game’s 31st minute. Eden Lenz almost scored by heading a corner kick, but her shot connected with the goalpost instead. The ball wasn’t cleared, however, and Alexa Mosley scored.

Within the first 40 seconds of the second half, Knutson scored for the third time. She was humble about the achievement. 

“I mean, that’s what you expect to do as a forward,” she said.

With the score at 7-0, the mercy rule forced the remaining game time to be cut in half, leaving just under 20 minutes left to play. A moment later, Sterling’s Illyana Moreno accidentally bodied the ball into her own net. The own goal brought the score to 8-0.

Sterling coach Raul Sanchez Jr. noted the match was a good lesson in aggression. 

“One thing we struggle with as a team is being a little bit more physical,” he said. “And Quincy is always good training for that, because they play fast, they think fast, the runs are fast.”

QHS focused on possession, passing and less pressure on the goal in the final minutes.

“Our halftime talk was … we wanted to string 10, 15 passes, getting the ball wide, knocking the ball back, swinging it around, switching the point of attack,” Dinkheller said. 

Dinkheller sees the next challenge on the horizon. 

“Come postseason, (we need to be) prepared to play anybody we see,” he said.

Annie C. Reller is a Seattle native and a recent Stanford graduate serving as an intern for Muddy River News this spring.