By Brandon Taylor, Biola Sports Information Assistant
LA MIRADA, Calif. --- The saying applies across a wide range of sports: the best defense is a good offense. But matches like the 6-1 win No. 11 Biola produced Tuesday in the conference opener against Arizona Christian prove just how distinctive this side's potent offense can be.
Biola (7-0) is currently one of the top-5 goal scoring teams in the NAIA with 31 goals in seven matches. But, like so many other matches, tonight the Eagles again split the scoring duties with six different players finding the net.
"The story of the season for us so far has been multiple girls stepping up to score," said Head Coach Erin Brunelle. "It was great to go 1-0 to start conference play against a very improved Arizona Christian side and to do it in a way where a lot of ladies showed we can count on them to come through for us."
It only took three minutes for Biola to get on the scoreboard, as forward Jessie Burns raced through a hole in the Firestorm defense to score a ball laid on by Ashley Ramirez just in front of goal. Burns' third goal of the season seemed to be the strong push the Eagles wanted to start rolling in conference play. But every opportunity over the next 23 minutes broke down until it was Marisa Reyes of the Firestorm who scored the next goal and tied the match at ones.
The single goal did not deter the Eagles, as the team redoubled their effort with three goals in the nine minutes leading up to halftime.
"Their goal pretty early on in the half kind of woke us up," said Brunelle. "It was a good response from our ladies to put a couple in before halftime to give us an extended lead."
Just a day after earning Golden State Athletic Conference Defender of the Week honors, Kayla White scored the Eagles' second goal on her patented strike from 30 yards out, stunning the opposing goalkeeper. Samantha Verduzco followed that up two minutes later with the close range finish that Biola is accustomed to after a beautiful combination from Janae Megorden and Taylor Venegas. Margaret Guadarrama would score her first goal of the season by heading a cross that Bri Mikalson served in from the right side, which was the defender's third assist on the year.
Biola would finish with its second 40-shot match of the season and an astounding 20 shots-on-goal. After the 15 minute break and the insertion of fresh substitutes, Biola simply broke the game open with the pressure it applied, adding two more goals on an unassisted Taylor Venegas strike and a Madyson Brown header assisted by a Mariah Ziemer corner kick.
Biola's next match is Saturday at home against GSAC opponent Menlo at 7:00 p.m.
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