West Port rolls past Trinity Catholic

West Port senior Victoria Carter celebrated her birthday in grand fashion by scoring three goals and assisting on four others to lead the Wolf Pack past Trinity Catholic by a score of 8-0 on Wednesday night.

The win evened Class 7A West Port’s record at 1-1.

“It’s a great start to our season and we had an opportunity to get all of our players in the game,” said Wolf Pack third-year coach Katherine Kelly. “We had multiple players score goals and Victoria, who is a team captain, celebrated her 18th birthday with a hat trick and I’m very proud of her. We’re starting to focus on some of the more tactical aspects of the game and I’m glad we were about to execute so well.”

The loss evened Class 3A Trinity Catholic’s record at 1-1 on the season.

“We started off a little deer in the headlights, but we made some adjustments after the first water break and put ourselves back in the game,” said Celtics coach Kathy McLean. “The girls played hard and put up a good fight. We are young and inexperienced and will get better with each game we play.”

West Port, which features 12 seniors on its roster, dominated possession of the ball against the younger and less experienced Trinity Catholic players in the opening minutes of the match. The Wolf Pack, which had 15 shots on goal, took the lead when senior Kameryn Knowles scored from 30 yards out 10 minutes into the first half.

Trinity Catholic managed a couple of shots on goal before West Port extended its lead as senior midfielder Jamie Drake netted back-to-back goals to put the Wolf Pack on top by a score of 3-0.

Trinity Catholic had an excellent scoring opportunity when sophomore Alexsa Benitez gained control of a loose ball in front of the goal, but her shot sailed just over the cross bar to keep the Celtics scoreless.

West Port added a goal off a nice run by senior Daisy Aguirre to take a 4-0 lead into the half.

“We were running a new formation tonight and executed it pretty well,” coach Kelly said.

West Port continued to move the ball with solid passing and good vision against the Trinity Catholic defense. The Wolf Pack tallied a pair of goals, one by Carter, the other she set up with a nice crossing pass to make it 6-0 midway through the second half.

Trinity Catholic, which had eight shots on goal, continued to play hard and just missed getting on the scoreboard on several occasions.

West Port senior Caitlyn Murphy scored on a rebound and Carter followed a few minutes later with her third goal of the game to make the score 8-0. The game was called because of the mercy rule.

“With 12 seniors on the team this is going to be a special season,” coach Kelly said. “We’re starting to finally build some team chemistry.”

West Port is back on the pitch on Thursday with a match at Citrus High School, while Trinity Catholic is at Lake Weir on Friday night.