Something about early-season soccer games must tickle the fancy of Hailey's Aimee Evans, a 5-8 sophomore forward/midfielder for the Chapman University (Ca.) Panther women's soccer team.
Last Sept. 5, Evans scored the eventual game-winning goal in her first-ever college soccer game for Chapman in a 2-0 victory over Pacific Lutheran University (Wash.) on the Panther field at Orange, Ca.
This past Labor Day weekend, Chapman (12-7 in 2009) opened its quest for back-to-back winning seasons for the first time since 2003-04 by playing three games on the road in Oregon. And Evans was a star.
Chapman (3-0) won all three games—1-0 over Willamette University Friday at Salem, Ore., 1-0 over Pacific University on Sunday, Sept. 5 and 4-0 over Northwest Christian at Springfield Monday.
Evans scored the game-winning goals in two of the three games and recorded her first college three-goal hat trick in Monday's 4-0 rout.
Friday on a sunny and hot day in Salem, Evans played 57 of 90 minutes and scored the only goal, unassisted, with a 21-yard shot at the 21-minute mark. She played 32 minutes without scoring in Sunday's 1-0 win over Pacific University.
On Labor Day, Evans was on fire with three goals. She took eight shots, seven on goal, which was the lion's share of Chapman's 16 shots on goal.
Her first goal came in the 27th minute, a 15-yard strike off a Breehn Sasaki through ball. Her second for a 3-0 lead came in the 63rd minute on a 20-yard strike beating a drawn keeper. The third was in the 84th minute, an empty net strike off a Kate Lilly cross.
Evans, a 2009 Wood River High grad, is the school's third-leading career goal scorer with 75 goals. She was the leader of the 18-2-1 Hailey squad in 2008 that won the school's second straight State 4A tournament consolation title.
Her parents, Rich and Juli Evans, made a surprise trip to Oregon to watch the games.
