From left, Monica Sanchez, Tori Brown, Anna Garrett and Elizabeth Campbell wait for the rest of their teammates as they cheer before the start of Thursday’s game against Belhaven.

After a rigorous seven consecutive road matches, the NAIA #20-ranked Brenau soccer team found comfort at home as Golden Tigers stormed past Belhaven University 5-0 on Thursday.
The Brenau offensive started slowly, but in the 37th minute Kayla Madsen (Flowery Branch, GA) found Esther Anyanwu (Lagos, Nigeria) to take a 1-0 lead into the half.

“I thought we possessed the ball well in the first half but didn’t really attack the way I anticipated we would. Our first goal was well earned and came from some crafty play down the middle” said head coach Mike Lochstampfor. “We talked at halftime about being more aggressive on the attack, knowing that Belhaven was a hard-working team with the ability to counter-attack”.

In the second half, the offense found its rhythm as the Golden Tigers exploded for four second half goals. In the 61st minute, Madsen found Vanessa Alexander (Toronto, Canada) to stretch the lead to 2-0.

In the 79th minute, Madsen and Rachel Zarach (Acworth, GA) found Anyanwu for her second goal of the match to give Brenau a commanding 3-0 lead.

The Golden Tigers offense wasn’t done, however, when in the 81st minute Madsen, who scored one goal and assisted on three others, took a Kirsty Smith (Doncaster, England) pass and found the back of the net to make the score 4-0. Brenau added a fifth late goal when in the 88th minute, Jenny Knibbs (Doncaster, England) set up Monica Sanchez (Miami, FL) to make it 5-0.

Junior keeper Tori Brown (Windermere, FL) saved one shot to secure the shutout.

Brenau’s Esther Anyanwu beats Belhaven goal keeper Isabelle Granlund to the ball as she scores the Golden Tigers first goal in their 5-0 shut out against the Blazers Thursday night.

“A couple of our goals were brilliant and were the result of both great effort and things we have been working on in training over the course of the last week, said Coach Lochstampfor. Equally important- I was so impressed with our back line which was solid and worked tremendously hard covering for each other and got a well-deserved shutout along with Tori (Brown)”.

“It was great to get the whole team involved in the win and the atmosphere with the fans and the drum line was excellent. We have a huge game coming up on Saturday against William Carey University who defeated us last year at their place so we are anticipating a hard-fought match”.

The win increased the Golden Tigers’ record to 6-2-1 (3-0 SSAC) and sets up a Saturday home showdown with conference opponent and NAIA #12-ranked William Carey University. Match start time is 5:30.