Lady Mats open season with a bang

Boateng gets 3 goals, 2 assists

Nicole Acosta couldn’t possibly have envisioned a much better Arizona Western women’s soccer coaching debut. Playing against a traditionally strong Pima program to open the season, the Matadors poured in five goals in the first 38 minutes of a 5-1 victory Thursday night at AWC.

The meeting was a rematch of last year’s Region I semifinals, when the thirdseeded Matadors edged the second-seeded Aztecs in overtime, but it appears the

teams may not be as close in caliber this year.

The four-goal defeat was the Aztecs’ worst since 2013, and their first regular-season loss by more than two goals since 2014.

“To be honest, I thought it was going to be like a maybe 2-1, 1-0 game,” said Acosta, AWC’s first-year coach. “But (the Matadors) stepped up.”

Talking about her roster earlier this week, Acosta described sophomore forward Christiana Boateng as the one who “scores like all our goals,” and that proved true early on Thursday, as Boateng opened the scoring just six minutes in and made it 2-0 in the 29th minute.

The 5-foot-1 speedster from Ghana, who netted a team-high 27 goals a season ago, added a third goal in the 38th minute to complete the

hat trick.

Is that what Acosta has come to expect from Boateng?

“I actually expect more,” she said with a laugh. “She’s amazing in her speed. I mean, she can outrun a lot of people and get those goals.”

“Last year was a good season, and this year I’m still trying to keep the good work,” Boateng said. “Get more goals and keep it up.”

Boateng didn’t score AWC’s other two goals — but she did pick up the assist on both.

The first came in the 36th minute, when sophomore midfielder Zayda Martinez let loose a long-distance shot — or, possibly, cross into the box — that sailed over the Pima goalkeeper’s head and in to make it 3-0. About two minutes later, sophomore midfielder Cato Hom scored to make it 4-0.

Thirty seconds after that

came Boateng’s final goal, the Matadors’ third in the span of 2 minutes, 15 seconds.

“Yeah I know, (Pima’s) pretty good, but I wasn’t surprised,” Boateng said of the early scoring barrage.

“I feel like my team had a lot more energy and they were more intense,” Acosta said.

Sophomore midfielder Karen Melendrez assisted on Boateng’s first goal, while freshman forward Asare Vera — also from Ghana — assisted on her last one.

Pima scored its lone goal in the 72nd minute.

Surprisingly, this wasn’t even AWC’s most lopsided season-opening win of the last two years, as a year ago the Matadors beat Glendale 14-1 in their opener. But the Gauchos, who won just two games all last season, aren’t Pima or close to it.