By By DAN WEISS / Niles Daily Star
BUCHANAN -- First-year Buchanan varsity girls soccer coach Jo Schau has a simple philosophy for her team -- play hard and don't give up.
That's why she didn't want her team's 14-1 loss to St. Joseph Friday night to be cut short by the mercy rule.
According to the rule, the game is stopped if a team is ahead by 10 or more goals after 10 minutes of the second half have been played.
Schau, however, requested the mercy rule not be applied Friday night.
The 10-goal deficit seemed inevitable when St. Joseph took a 7-1 lead by the end of the first half and it took the Bears a little less than 12 minutes in the second half to take an 11-1 lead.
The Bears scored quickly to start the game. Anna Schueneman scored the first of her two goals in the third minute off an assist from Mallory Smith. Schueneman then fed Elizabeth Marschke for the first of her four goals three minutes later to give St. Joseph a 2-0 lead.
Buchanan cut the lead to 2-1 on its only goal of the night. Heather Lentz found a hole in the defense and sent a ball through to Natalie Barclay who beat St. Joseph goalkeeper Ashley Doyle in the ninth minute.
From there, it was all Bears as Schueneman scored her second goal in the 11th minute and Marschke scored two more goals before halftime. Kaitlyn Becker also scored the first of her two goals before halftime and Lindsey Williamson, who ended up scoring five goals, scored once in the first half.
Becker opened the second-half scoring just three minutes into the action and Marschke scored her fourth and final goal in the sixth minute. Williamson then scored two straight goals, one assisted by Becker, before Brittany Damschroder got in on the scoring action. Williamson wrapped up the scoring with two more goals.
St. Joseph took 28 shots on the Buchanan goal, which was manned by Brittany Harrington to start the game. She recorded two saves before Robyn Bahr replaced her with 24 minutes remaining in the first half. Bahr collected 10 saves.
Buchanan is now 1-4-1 on the year and will return to action Monday night at Paw Paw.