By Tim Heiduk
October 5, 2019
 
(ATHERTON, Calif.)  Another two-goal game from Bri Johnson sent the #7 Westmont women's soccer team on its way to a second consecutive GSAC win, this time a 4-1 victory over Menlo.
 
"It's exciting to see all the pieces coming together," said Westmont head coach Jenny Jaggard. "There's some really good chemistry right now and there's some really good individual moments as well. There are some players that are really shining right now."
 
No player is shining brighter than Johnson, who tallied her third brace of the season and second in a row after also scoring two goals against William Jessup on Thursday.
 
"Bri is on fire. She's doing everything right," said Jaggard. "Offensively, she's doing a great job of collecting balls and being dangerous, knowing when to slot some really perfect opportunities today for some teammates that just didn't quite connect. She had some really impressive through balls and on her own, she's just really strong on the dribble and has an incredible shot."
 
Johnson got the Warriors going in just the seventh minute with a goal assisted by Teagan Matye.
 
The junior forward added her second goal of the game and seventh of the season 20 minutes later.
 
"She took this absolutely phenomenal first touch out of the air, around a defender, and then volleyed it back post," said Jaggard. "It was an absolute ripper and it couldn't have been any more well placed. It was absolutely side net, so that was an exciting goal."
 
Westmont carried a 2-0 lead into halftime after outshooting Menlo 19-4 in the first half. The Warriors limited the Oaks to only two shots in the second half, but one of those resulted in a goal in the 70th minute, cutting Westmont's lead to one.
 
"Soccer is a frustrating game, because at that point it could have very easily been 10-0 when they got that goal on us," said Jaggard. "We talked about it, 2-0 is the most dangerous lead in soccer. In some sense, it was a good lesson for us. We possessed 95% of the game and that doesn't mean you're going to win. You've got to find ways to put goals away and give credit to them.
 
"They definitely had us scrambling there for a few minutes. On one hand it almost felt unjust, like 'How could we possibly be scrambling in this game when we've been playing so well?' But it's part of the game."
 
The score remained 2-1 for 15 minutes until the Warriors tacked on two insurance goals in the 86th minute, just 17 seconds apart from each other.
 
"I liked how our team answered," said Jaggard on her team's response to being scored on. "It was fun to see them step it up and put a couple more away, so we didn't have to worry during those last couple minutes of the game."
 
Matye scored the team's third goal of the game and her second of the year to put Westmont back up by two.
 
Moments later, Maddi Berthoud rounded out the scoring with her seventh goal of the season, tied with Johnson for most on the team.
 
"I think that we have finally hit our stride with figuring out how to swing the ball," said Jaggard. "We did an amazing job of just pinging it and finding open space. I think that they compacted and just played a really tight back four in front of the goal. I think we did a really good job of getting out into that flank space and getting a lot of crosses off."
 
On the day, Westmont outshot Menlo 33-6.
 
Jaggard highlighted the play of left back Kira Nemeth. "The last two goals both started from Kira," said Jaggard. "Kira had an absolutely amazing game today. The last few games, she has been the rock for us. She's coming up and making runs. We found her in the center of the box multiple times today, creating really dangerous opportunities."
 
With the win, Westmont improved to 8-1-1 overall on the season and 2-0 in the GSAC. The Warriors will hope to continue their upward trend heading into next weekend's Homecoming showdown with #12 Vanguard (5-1-2 overall, 1-0 GSAC), the reigning GSAC regular season champions.
 
"I'm looking forward to the battle," said Jaggard. "I think it's going to be a good game. We already proved that we can battle in Georgia. I think that we're playing a lot faster since Georgia. I'm really happy with our progress."
 
Kickoff next Saturday is scheduled for noon on Thorrington Field.