After a tough start to the 2024 soccer season, Allen Community College’s women thrived atop their home field advantage Wednesday.
The Red Devils received a pair of goals from both Jillian Muehlberger and Audrey Smith in a 5-0 shutout win over visiting State Fair Community College.
“It was nice to get that first win of the season,” Allen head coach Jeremy McGinnis said. “Hopefully, we can stack more wins up this weekend and into next week.”
The difficult start was hardly unexpected.
Allen’s preseason schedule included visits to Hutchinson and Butler County — both NJCAA-I schools — before opening the regular season over the weekend at nationally ranked St. Louis Community College and another D-1 school in Southwestern Illinois College.
The Red Devils were shut out against St. Louis. In the loss against SWIC, McGinnis said “I saw a lot of improvement.
The fun carried over to Wednesday, where Allen controlled things from the start.
Muehlberger took a feed from McKenna Blanchat and poked one past the Roadrunners goalkeeper in the 13th minute. She scored again off a Smith assist 12 minutes later to double the score. Keimari Simon delivered late in the half to make it 3-0.
While things were well in control, McGinnis noted there remained room for improvement.
“There’s still a little something with the technical stuff and passing,” he said. “A lot of our freshmen are still learning, trying to figure things out. That’s gonna take time. There’s a learning curve.”
State Fair couldn’t muster much of anything early in the second half, despite earning a pair of corner kicks, before Allen reasserted its dominance.
Smith took a pass from Shania Charles and made it 4-0 in the 50th minute. She also blasted home a penalty kick with about 10 minutes remaining.
“Jillian and Audrey are special players,” McGinnis said. “Jillian can play anywhere on the field. She’s very versatile, very athletic.”
The game was played with temps approaching the upper 90s and minimal breeze.
“It was hot, so we did a lot of rotations,” McGinnis said.
Sasha Morgan earned her first career shutout, blocking a pair of shots on the few scoring opportunities Allen afforded State Fair.
