STEUBENVILLE—With five minutes remaining in the first half of their 2011 season opener, the Franciscan University of Steubenville Lady Baron soccer team scored its first goal by way of a penalty kick off the foot of Ashley Ruttencutter. This sparked an eight-goal outburst from the Lady Barons as they earned a shutout victory over non-conference opponent Chatham University, 8-0.

The last five minutes of the first half saw two more Lady Baron goals. Ruttencutter's penalty kick was followed by a Jordan Byrley goal two minutes later, and Ruttencutter got her second goal of the season just a minute after that. Both Byrley's goal and Ruttencutter's second goal were assisted by Katie Roemer.

"Our girls came out hungry," said assistant coach Bill Herrmann. "We had lots of opportunities at the start that we couldn't finish, but we put some subs in and they stepped up in a great way."

The second half brought much of the same for Franciscan as it tacked on five more goals from four new scorers. Amanda Looman netted two, while Julia Cocozza, Sarah Marrow, and Ali Moravsky each had one goal. Cocozza also dished out two assists, and Ruttencutter tallied one assist of her own.

"We got a lot of our younger players involved towards the end of the first half," noted Herrmann, "which I think made the starters want to get back out there in the second half and do their part as well. We have really good team chemistry for where we're at, but the more we play together, the better we'll be. We're happy with where we've come after just two weeks of training."

The opening game victory brings the Lady Barons record to 1-0-0 overall, and they will prepare to face Waynesburg University on Saturday with kick off slated for 2 p.m. at Franciscan. Prior to the women's game will be the men's season opener also against Waynesburg at noon.