SYRACUSE - If junior Mallory Rondeau is after Wawasee's girls soccer scoring records, she made a strong statement Monday against Lakeland.
In the 7-0 season-opening home win, Rondeau scored two of her three goals in the first three minutes of the match, finishing the contest with three assists as well."Mallory is definitely going to be a key player for us, as far as attacking the goal and scoring," Wawasee coach Dodd Cunningham said about his star striker.
Rondeau ended last season coming just one goal short of 2009 graduate Brennan McAdams' 23 in one season, but looks to break that this year with the record for career goals also within reach.
"She's definitely who we're going to look for a lot of times to attack the goal," Cunningham said. "We have a good midfield behind her, so if they work well together and put some combinations together, she'll find the back of the net a lot of times this year."
Two of Rondeau's assists went to senior Katie Allen, while the other was a perfectly placed cross to sophomore Lexi Blunk, which put Wawasee in front 3-0 in the seventh minute.
"I always try to emphasize them being mentally prepared and start at the highest possible level they can," Cunningham said about the Warriors' quick start, which saw them ahead 4-0 within the first 13 minutes. "Sometimes, that's hard to do. It seemed like they were at the start of the game, so they took advantage of it right away."
The majority of the scoring came in the first 13 minutes, but Wawasee dominated throughout.
Over the course of the 80 minutes, Wawasee took 39 total shots and 17 on goal, compared to Lakeland's one.
"Throughout the first few games, we always seem to be finding ourselves," Cunningham said about what he could learn from the opening game. "Most of the time, even with the very best teams I've had, we seem to be finding ourselves right to the end of the season, or at least midway through."
If this team is to be as special as Wawasee's 2006 and 2007 sectional championship teams, some girls will have to fill in around Rondeau and seniors Allen, Kayla Courtney, Haley Cunningham, Haylee Galloway, Amy Walker and Maggie Reichel.
"We have a very small team without a lot of depth," Cunningham said. "We have a good group of returning starters from last year's varsity, but it's a group of nine. We're filling some voids."
