Milligan Women’s Soccer played its first match with new head coach Alyssa Whitehead on Saturday, March 13 against Warren Wilson College. The Buffs traveled to Swannanoa, NC and brought home a 6-0 win against the NCAA Division III team.
After the game, Whitehead said, “I’m definitely very excited. I think the team has been very welcoming and receptive to the training that we’ve had.”
Two goals were scored in the first five minutes of the game. Ellie Cachiaras scored the first goal in the first minute of the match after driving the ball and beating a defender. Shortly after, Ella Sawa scored from a header off a corner kick taken by Ashlen Burch.
Whitehead said, “What we’ve been working on like crosses and shooting and everything, as you can see in the game, it happened a lot. We had several good crosses, corner kicks, we scored, and movement was going so much better, so I’m really excited.”
In the second half, Alia Figueredo passed the ball off to Audra Morgan who hit a first-time shot for a goal from outside the 18-yard box. Junior captain Bella Cranford said, “I was very excited to see us all back on the field together. The way we played showed that our preparation and practice rewarded us. I think Coach has a huge contribution to that.”
Prior to coaching at Milligan, Whitehead coached at three NCAA Division I schools, including her alma mater, Samford University. She is the most decorated goalkeeper in Samford’s history, and in 2018 was the first soccer player to be inducted into the Samford Hall of Fame; she holds every single-season goalkeeping record in school history. Whitehead played professionally in Sweden in the Division 1 Norrettan League for three seasons, and was a member of the Jamaica women’s national football Olympic qualifying team. She was a goalkeeper coach with the Jamaican Football Federation and the U.S. Olympic Development Program, too.
“She came in ready to work with us to get to the next level we all want to be at. The way she encourages us to be our best as people, students, and athletes has pushed us as a team in a great direction,” Bella said.
Later in the second half, Burch scored a hat trick in only 10 minutes. Burch took a PK that bounced off the keeper, but she scored with a follow through off the rebound. Four minutes later, Burch received the ball from Alex Thomas, then beat two defenders to score again. To complete the hat trick, Burch pressed the keeper who had the ball at her feet, took the ball and scored the Buffs’ final goal.
“There’s definitely some things we can possibly fine tune, but in the grand scheme of things it’s all going in the right direction, so I’m pretty pumped about that,” Whitehead said. The Buffs will play CIU at home on Saturday, March 20, and then travel to Sewanee a week later to finish the regular season. Whitehead said, “We’re just excited to get out and play. Instead of kicking at each other a little bit, kick at someone else, so it’s going well.”
Visitors are welcome to the home soccer matches and are expected to follow social distancing guidelines and wear a mask.
Headline photo: Ashlen Burch was nominated for AAC Offensive Player of the Week.