The smiles on the Lady Bulldogs’ faces grew after time ran out on Thursday at Chris Hotop Field.

Mexico vs Blair Oaks Photo Gallery

The Mexico girls won their second game of the season but first on home turf after defeating Blair Oaks 2-0 on first-half goals by Claire Hudson and Emily Moppin. The Lady Bulldogs outshot the Lady Falcons 24-6, and freshman goalkeeper Katie Crews turned away three shots in the second half.

Head coach Sarah Olson admitted Mexico (2-13-1) was fatigued heading into its first home game in a little more than two weeks as it marked the seventh game in nine days for the Lady Bulldogs. With this being the end of Mexico’s densest part of the schedule, Olson said the focus was just not losing sight of the enjoyment of soccer.

“Our goal tonight was just to have fun,” Olson said. “We’re past the midpoint in the season and we’ve played a lot of games — (Blair Oaks) has also played a lot of games — so we really tried not to focus too much on technique. That is good to remember that it’s a game you’re supposed to love.” 

This stretch has also brought some injuries for the Lady Bulldogs, particularly on the defensive side. Olson said defender Addison Paden is likely out for the year after injuring her knee in a 6-1 loss at North Central Missouri Conference foe Marshall on Monday. Reigning all-conference goalkeeper Tessa Haefling has moved to her position but mostly because of an arm issue that doesn’t limit her in the field but puts the inexperienced Crews in the net.

Despite not receiving any touches in goal before now, Olson said Crews has performed well as she made 13 saves in the Marshall game and made some saves down the stretch to preserve the win against Blair Oaks (1-15-1).

“She has not played goalie before this year. I think she maybe played two or three JV games before she was in varsity goal,” Olson said. “Her first game, we won (4-1) against Fulton (on April 13). That’s not an easy position to play so for her to step up and make some very important saves late in the second half was incredible.”

Crews didn’t see much activity prior to answering the call later in the second half as Mexico kept the ball on its offensive side. 

“They had a lot of people back, but that also meant our defense was winning the ball because they didn’t have a lot of players on our defense,” Olson said. “It took them a while to come out so we were able to send the ball back in or send the ball to the outside.”

The wind played a factor on Thursday as the ball took irregular bounces at times. Hudson stayed busy in both halves as she added another goal in the 22nd minute on a penalty kick to keep her at the top of the team’s offensive leaders along with Moppin, who scored in the 33rd minute not long after a corner kick.

Hudson said she has a determined attitude when pursuing the ball, only applying the brakes when the goalie has possession. She said she noticed the team did a better job of connecting on passes even with the weather working against them.

“We’ve played in a lot of wind this year, but when it’s windy, you just have to keep the ball on the ground so it doesn’t fly away,” Hudson said. 

Mexico will have a weekend with any games before playing at 5 p.m. Monday at conference foe Kirksville (3-5, 2-4 NCMC).