Box Score

Becca Romaine scored career goals number 33 and 34 during the Ladies'2-1 season-opening home win over Manchester University." src="/common/controls/image_handler.aspx?thumb_id=13&image_path=/images/2014/8/29/Romaine_Becca_14WSOC13.JPG" />

GAMBIER, Ohio – The visiting Manchester University Spartans knew what was coming… and they still couldn't stop it.

Friday evening at Mavec Field the one-woman wrecking ball that is Becca Romaine demolished the Spartans' defense while scoring two goals and leading her Kenyon College Ladies soccer team to a 2-1 season-opening win.

After a scoreless first half, Romaine broke free about three minutes into the second half of play. From the middle of the box, she beat Manchester goalkeeper Emily Willmann for what was the Ladies' first goal of the 2014 season.

About 11 minutes later, Manchester's Brandy Crouse took a shot that bounced off Kenyon keeper Anna Schueler. The rebound came back out to Allison Moore, a Spartans sophomore, who tied the game up. It didn't stay that way for long, though. Romaine hammered home her second goal of the contest in the game's 66th minute and that tally held up as the game-winner.

Romaine, a senior forward and the reigning North Coast Athletic Conference Player of the Year, now has 34 career goals. That total ranks fifth all-time in program history and is just one goal shy of tying Shannon Maroney's fourth-place total of 35 career goals.

Her two goals were certainly impressive, but Romaine could have had more. In the game's 24th minute, her second shot of the contest ricocheted off the left post. In the second half, she nearly had a break-away, but before she could get a shot off Willmann dove at the ball and steered it away. In between those two close-calls, Kenyon sophomore Taylor Jamil laced a shot that smacked off the Manchester crossbar.

Overall, Kenyon outshot Manchester 19-11 and maintained possession for the majority of the game. Even when the Spartans went into desperation mode late in the game, they couldn't seem to pry possession away from the Ladies and failed to even register a shot over the last 27 minutes of play.

For Kenyon, the victory was the Ladies' first season-opening win since 2006. They'll try to double that output tomorrow when they host the Adrian College Bulldogs at 4 p.m. Adrian is coming off a 6-1 loss at Denison University.