If you go by the calendar, autumn doesn’t arrive for another week.
Fortunately for Allen Community College’s women, this Autumn hasn’t had to wait that long to make her presence known.
Autumn Wyatt, a sophomore out of Kansas City, Mo., helped the Red Devils get off to a roaring start in conference play, scoring a career-high five goals in a 6-2 romp over visiting Highland.
The victory lifts ACC to 6-2 overall and 1-0 in JCCC play.
“Over the past few games, I’ve had opportunities to finish, but I didn’t,” Wyatt said.
So Wyatt and a handful of teammates would stay around after practice sessions to work on individual scoring drills.
“I know I’ve gotta do better,” she said.
The extra practice seemed to do the trick.
Wyatt had a hat trick by intermission, along with a goal by teammate Maci Beacher.
A brief lull in Allen’s defensive concentration led to a pair of Highland Community College goals to cut ACC’s lead to 4-2.
Allen controlled the action through the second half, but couldn’t connect on much until Wyatt scored twice, 55 seconds apart, midway through the period to end any suspense.
Even with the comfortable lead, the girls wanted more.
“You could see at halftime, even though we were up 4-2, they looked like we were losing,” Allen head coach Jeremy McGinnis said. “You could see it in their eyes.
“Part of me likes that, that they’re not happy with giving up two goals,” he continued. “We hold ourselves to a pretty high standard. Expectations are really high.”
That pressure can also be a problem, McGinnis said.
“But the girls came through at the end,” he said. “They did well.”
