CMS Women's Soccer Builds Big Lead, Holds On for SCIAC-Opening Win over Redlands

REDLANDS, Calif. - Kaitlyn Helfrich had two goals and an assist as the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's soccer team built a 3-0 lead and held on for a 4-3 win over Redlands in the SCIAC opener for both teams at Farquhar Field.

With the win, the Athenas improve to 4-0 on the young season, and open league play with a 1-0 mark, while Redlands slips to 1-3 overall and 0-1 in the league. 

CMS got off to a torrid start, scoring three times in the first 12:51 of the game. It was a similar formula to last week's 3-0 win over Whittier, when the Athenas scored twice in the game's first six minutes. 

Taylor Arakaki got things ignited for CMS when she scored at the 5:39 mark to give the Athenas the early 1-0 lead. She was followed just over four minutes later by the first of Helfrich's two goals at the 9:57 mark, and then Helfrich assisted on a goal from Ava Schmitt less than three minutes later (12:51) to make it a 3-0 game before the teams even worked up a sweat. 

Redlands got one back at the 26-minute mark to make it a 3-1 game going into halftime, but Helfrich answered back with her second goal 10 minutes into the second half to push the lead to 4-1 and seemingly put the game out of reach. The Bulldogs, though, trimmed the lead to 4-2 with 21:29 remaining, and then put some late pressure on the Athenas by scoring again with 2:50 remaining, the second goal from Peyton Fendrich, to make it a 4-3 contest. 

Redlands, though, was unable to get a shot off in the final 2:50, as CMS was able to preserve the one-goal win. Athena Manthouli had seven saves on the day for the Athenas to get the win. 

CMS will be back in action on Saturday when it returns home to take on La Verne for a 7 p.m. contest at Pritzlaff Field.