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Jessie Burns

Women's Soccer Brandon Taylor, Sports Information Assistant

Eagles Find The Net In Second Half Surge

Samantha Verduzco and Jessie Burns land two quick strikes for Biola within the first 15 minutes of the second half leading to the Eagles second win.

Jessie Burns scored her first goal of the season of Friday and sealed a 2-0 win for Biola.
Box Score

LA MIRADA, Calif. --- In tonight's home opener against Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Biola Women's Soccer demonstrated why they are so hard to meet on their home turf with a 2-0 win. It just was not until the second half that the Eagles really took the match in hand to grasp win number two on the year.

"It was good to get another win," said Head Coach Erin Brunelle. "Although we started off slow, the girls built momentum as we went on and led to a good second half. The back line was stellar and helped the players in front of them to really support the work that Ashley Ramirez and Janae Megorden were doing to keep us in the game."

Although the Eagles handed a few high-risk opportunities to the Athenas with the first 10 minutes of the match, they were able to neutralize the opponent's first half challenges without showing evident signs of scrambling. The defense held the Athenas to seven shots, compared to Biola's eight, in the first half and Christina Rodriguez made three of her four total saves in the first 45 minutes.

But the back-and-forth mood of the match completely changed once the Eagles came out of the locker room for the second half. Biola broke through quick and made everything click for Samantha Verduzco's third goal 64 seconds after play commenced. That was only the beginning, as the Eagles would have three more dangerous chances at a second goal within the next 12 minutes before captain Jessie Burns culminated the attacking efforts with her first goal of the year.

"We turn the tables on them so we were the ones applying pressure in the second half and that led to our two goals," said Brunelle. "It was really good to get Jessie more minutes and back into game sharpness after coming back for an injury. It was a huge boost of confidence for her to get that goal."

The pressure Biola applied hardly changed after goals, as ball stayed in the Athenas' defensive half for the majority of the final thirty minutes. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps would manage only two shots in the second half and did not make a shot on goal until the 84th minute when Rodriguez easily corralled the floating attempt made from well outside the 18-yard box.  

After the win, Biola is now 23-5-3 in matches at Al Barbour Field since Burns and her senior class started their collegiate careers.

The Eagles have three more home matches scheduled over the next 10 days, with the first coming on Labor Day at 4:00 p.m. against Rocky Mountain College.
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Players Mentioned

Jessie Burns

#18 Jessie Burns

MF
5' 7"
Senior
Janae Megorden

#27 Janae Megorden

MF/D
5' 3"
Junior
Ashley Ramirez

#19 Ashley Ramirez

MF
5' 5"
Junior
Samantha Verduzco

#26 Samantha Verduzco

F/D
5' 9"
Junior
Christina Rodriguez

#1 Christina Rodriguez

GK
5' 5"
Freshman

Players Mentioned

Jessie Burns

#18 Jessie Burns

5' 7"
Senior
MF
Janae Megorden

#27 Janae Megorden

5' 3"
Junior
MF/D
Ashley Ramirez

#19 Ashley Ramirez

5' 5"
Junior
MF
Samantha Verduzco

#26 Samantha Verduzco

5' 9"
Junior
F/D
Christina Rodriguez

#1 Christina Rodriguez

5' 5"
Freshman
GK
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