By Ron Smith
September 1, 2021
 
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) A goal by Reese Davidson was all #18 Westmont Women's Soccer would need to claim a 1-0 victory over Southern Oregon (1-1-1) in the Warriors' season opener. The win avenged a loss two years ago to the same team in Jenny Jaggard's first game as Westmont's head coach.
 
On August 15, 2019, Southern Oregon came from behind to take down the Warriors 2-1 and start Jaggard off with a career coaching record of 0-1. With the result form today's game, Jaggard improved to 24-9-1 (.721).
 
In the15th minute, and with the ball deep in Westmont's defensive end, Taylie Scott threw in a ball from the right-hand touch line. The ball was knocked out of play by the Raiders' Baylee Touye and Scott moved up the line and threw the ball in again. This time the inbounded ball was headed toward the midfield line, but then touched out of bounds by Southern Oregon's Skyler Coleman.
 
Westmont's Amarys Machado hustled down the touchline, retrieved the ball and quickly threw it over the top to Davidson who broke for the goal.
 
Davidson picked up the ball on the dribble and eluded the Raider's Morgan Rohmann who was defending on the play. After entering the six-yard box from the right-hand side. Davidson sent a shot just inside the near post that caught goalkeeper Jessie Shelby leaning the other direction.
 
"I am so excited for Reese," said Jaggard. "She scored her first goal of the season and a it was a good, quality goal. She created a couple other dangerous opportunities in the first half as well.
 
"I am pleased with the progress made by our front line. They are doing a much better job of holding the ball and finding when to play the ball through and getting those shooting opportunities. We got 21 shots today. That is huge for us. It's a generation of attack that we hadn't seen in any of this year's scrimmages.
 
"We were also focused on creating width in the attack. We have been very narrow up to today, but it was vastly improved. We were able to swing the ball and play a little bit. It was starting to look pretty. We are starting to build some chemistry and figure out some set pieces too."
 
Davidson and Machado accounted for six shots each for the Warriors while Teagan Matye added another five shots. Each of those student-athletes tallied three of Westmont's 12 shots on goal.
 
"I thought Teagan was fantastic today," said Jaggard. "Teagan was such a play maker. She had a couple amazing opportunities that didn't quite go in. Their keeper made one really good save off of one of the shots that she took. Teagan was everywhere offensively and defensively. She was really on today."
 
"Shayna Stock, our outside back, created a lot of problems for the other team the first half. I could hear the other coach talking about how to solve her always being open. So, she was sitting in the right places, making the opposing midfielder have to make a decision about stepping out and covering her or leaving someone open in the middle. It went in our favor quite a bit today."
On the defensive side of the ball, the Warriors held the Raiders to just three shots, only one of which was on goal.
 
"Defensively, we had some really good moments. When we are successful pressing in the middle and final third and getting pressure on the ball early, we are organized. There is some work to be down in the back third, especially when balls get sent in the air.
 
"Both teams were in 4-4-2 formations. It is a situation where if you have time and space in the middle third to whack the long diagonal ball, there was a dangerous one-on-one opportunity for both us and Southern Oregon today. Overall, it was managed pretty well, but there are things we can do to get better."
 
Westmont junior goalkeeper Kailey Meyer recorded her first collegiate shutout, producing one save in the 86th minute on a shot by Sophia Connell from the right-hand corner of the 18-yard box. Connell's attempt was headed for the left-hand crease, but Meyer dove to her right and caught the ball with her hands to end the threat.
 
"We are using Kailey's feet more," said Jaggard of her net tender. "So, she is helping generate the attack and release pressure when the other team is putting a good press on us. We can knock it back to her and we are finally getting the width from outside backs for her to confidently send it out wide or look to hit a longer ball up through the midfield. She has been working on it a lot and it has definitely improved."
 
The Warriors will take the show on the road on Saturday when they travel to Torrance to take on the Mariners of Marymount at 3:00 p.m. On Monday, Westmont will return to Lovik Field as part of a men's and women's doubleheader against Rocky Mountain (Mont.). The women will kick-off at 12:30 p.m. with the men following at 3:15 p.m.