WAITHIRA’S HUGE PERFORMANCE POWERS DRAGONS PAST PRATT
Hutchinson CC Sports Information
Sophomore midfielder Naomi Waithira had a career-high seven-point night to lead the Hutchinson Community College women's soccer team to its sixth consecutive victory on Saturday night at the Salthawk Sports Complex.
Waithira tied career highs of two goals and three assists to power the Blue Dragons to a 5-0 Jayhawk West victory over the Pratt Beavers. The Dragons improve to 7-1 overall and 5-0 in the Jayhawk West (15 points). Pratt falls to 2-8 and 1-4.
Hutchinson is tied with Cloud County for first place in the Jayhawk West. The Blue Dragons travel to Concordia for a 2 p.m. meeting on Wednesday.
Waithira's three assists give her 24 career assists. She moved from 12th to eighth on the Blue Dragon career assist list.
Her first assist got the Dragons on the board late in the first half. She fed Charvelle Henry for a goal with 1:52 remaining in the first half for a 1-0 lead.
The flood gates finally opened for Hutchinson with four goals in the second half, and Waithira was right in the middle of the action.
Samantha Vaughn's 13th goal of the season was assisted by Waithira for a 2-0 lead with 37:02 to play in the second half.
Waithira made it 3-0 when she blistered a shot from about 25 yards out with 22:20. Macy Smith was credited with the assist. She scored her second goal of the game a little less than 4 minutes later, this time she hammered home a point-blank shot from a Marah Franke assist for a 4-0 lead.
Franke finished off the scoring when she found the back of the net with 4:53 to go. Henry and Waithira were both credited with assists and Hutch led 5-0.
The Blue Dragons out-shot Pratt 37-2, including 16-1 in shots on goal.
Franke and Henry both had a goal and an assist.
Blue Dragon freshman goalkeeper made only one save, which came off a free kick after a Dragon foul. Now (7-1), she posted her seventh shutout of the season, including six shutouts in a row.
Hutchinson has now put together the third longest scoreless streak in terms of minutes in program history. The current streak is at 557 minutes. The Dragons have produced two longer scoreless streaks of 613 in 2011 and 595 in 2017.
The Blue Dragons are now 13-0 all-time against Pratt. All three wins have been by shutout.