Three-Goal First Half Lifts Wildcats to 3-2 Victory Over William Penn

BALDWIN CITY, Kan. – Three goals in the first half of Baker women's soccer's midweek makeup match with William Penn was enough to lead the Wildcats to a 3-2 win over the Statesmen here Wednesday night in Baldwin City.

Cate Nearmyer scored a goal in the game's opening minute and teammates Bella Wiles and Emma Schieber followed with their goals to give the Wildcats three unanswered points all in the first 30 minutes of play.

"It was a good feeling to get the win today," said Baker head coach Sara Matthews. "Getting a goal there in the first minute was a big lift for us and really boosted our confidence early."

The Wildcats finished with a 13-10 advantage in shots and held a comfortable 13-3 margin in corner kicks. Baker starting keeper Jorja Martin collected four saves and earned her first win in goal this season.

With only a handful of ticks off the clock, Nearmyer had a deflected cross from Sadie Dipman-Hayward fall to her feet and the senior midfielder slipped a shot past a diving WPU keeper to put Baker up 1-0 just over 20 seconds into the match.

Then, in the 14th minute, one of Baker's seven corner kicks of the first half led to its second goal with Wiles soaring to head a slinging ball sent in by Caitlin Youles that found the back of the net and made it a two-goal lead for BU within the game's first 15 minutes.

Schieber made it three straight scores for the home side with her goal in the 30th minute after spearheading a BU counter-attack with Darcy Cato. Schieber and Cato connected on a give-and-go action that resulted with Schieber having an open look on the far side of the box and the junior forward zipped one in for her first goal of the season.

A few minutes later, the Statesmen would record their first goal of the match as a goal from Ana Medina-Suazo made it a 3-1 ballgame with less than 15 minutes remaining in an action-packed first half.

Following halftime, the Wildcats came out attacking in the second half, notching four shots and a corner kick in the first 17 minutes after the restart. Dipman-Hayward had three good looks during that stretch with her and Kailee Niehs putting consecutive shots towards goal.

William Penn trimmed its deficit in the 67th minute, scoring on a long shot by Taylor Witthauer to make it a one-score game.

Martin and the Wildcats defense would hold from there as the BU goalie snared a couple of last-minute efforts by the Statesmen to preserve the 3-2 victory and earn Baker's first conference win of the season.

With Nearmyer, Wiles and Schieber all netting their first goals of the year, Youles was credited with her team-high third assist of the season, while Cato's setup was her first assist in 2023.

"The confidence with tonight's win is big and we really want to focus on the positive from tonight," added Matthews. "But the message for us in conference play is that every game is going to be a battle, as shown tonight with a William Penn team that competed til the end. We need to make sure we manage every single minute of the game and know that every game is going to be a grind."

Moving to 2-6-1 overall, the Wildcats head out for a conference road match at Culver-Stockton with a Saturday night matchup set to kick off at 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 30 in Canton, Mo.

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