RIO GRANDE, Ohio — Indiana Wesleyan University exploded for five first half goals and cruised to a 5-0 win over the University of Rio Grande, Saturday evening, in non-conference women’s soccer action at Evan E. Davis Field.
The Wildcats evened their season mark at 1-1 with the victory.
Rio Grande fell to 0-2 with a second straight shutout loss.
Lexis Garcia scored a pair of goals and Lauren Turner had two assists for IWU, which enjoyed a whopping 31-7 edge in overall shots.
Garcia’s two goals came just 63 seconds apart – the first with 30:39 remaining in the opening stanza on a blast from the upper left corner of the 18-yard box and the second with 29:36 left in the half on a shot from the center of the 18 off a cross from right to left by Turner.
Turner also served up a crossing pass from the left side of the 18 which Schay Mulherin turned into the third goal of the match with 12:28 before the break, while Deja Edwards headed in Kristy Bowden’s pass from 35 yards out on the right side with 2:45 remaining to make it 4-0.
The Wildcats tacked on the final marker of the day with just 51 seconds left before half when a corner kick by Bowden inadvertently went off the head of a Rio defender and into the net.
Sam Castaneda and Abby Dykema divided time in goal for IWU, with both registering a pair of saves. Castaneda collected the win.
Freshman Jayla Brown (Chillicothe, OH) started and took the loss in net for Rio Grande, recording 10 saves over 78:51 minutes of playing time.
Fellow frosh Emily Hoffman (Arcanum, OH) recorded one stop over the final 11:09 in a losing cause for the RedStorm.
Rio Grande returns to action next Friday at Lawrence Tech (Mich.) University. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m.

Randy Payton is the Sports Information Director at the University of Rio Grande.