Olivia Draguicevich tallied her second career hat trick, leading the Northwestern State women's soccer team to a 6-0 shutout victory in the home opener Friday evening against Jackson State.
Draguicevich, a senior from Pflugerville, Texas, has put the ball in the back of the net 29 times in her decorated NSU career, which is tied for second in program history. She trails Britiany Cargill by six for the program record.
It's always nice scoring because I know the team worked really hard to earn those opportunities," Draguicevich said. "It's always nice to get those goals because we all worked together for them."
This is the first time the Lady Demons have scored at least five goals in back-to-back games since tallying at least five in three consecutive games in 2018.
For the second consecutive game, a scoring flurry from NSU did in the opposition. Against Grambling, Northwestern State scored four in the second half, including three in a five-minute stretch to turn a 2-1 contest into a 5-1 final.
Friday evening, NSU scored four more in the second half, but the scoring barrage began late in the first. With the home team clinging to a 1-0 advantage, Draguicevich received a pass from Gracie Armstrong, in the box and popped it over goalkeeper Tionna Taylor in the 42nd minute to double the lead before halftime and open the floodgates.
JSU (1-6) had a spurt late in the first half, trying for the equalizer with consecutive shot attempts by Annalise Brunson and Jordan Smith, but Chloe DeShazer kept the Lady Tigers off the board with two of her four saves to earn her first shutout of the season.
She nearly had another goal in the 48th minute, beating Taylor clean, but her shot rolled inches wide left and the score remained 2-0. But she exacted her revenge minutes later, by intercepting a pass on a goal kick and beat Taylor 1-on-1 to make it 3-0 and earn her hat trick.
"That late goal in the first half woke up the offense," NSU women's soccer coach Stuart Gore said. "I challenged them to score in the first 10 minutes of the second half and they scored in the first five minutes.
"Olivia does what Olivia does and scores goals. It was great to see us not take our foot off the gas in the second half."
She also had a hat trick against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi last season, scoring a program-record four goals in the 4-0 victory.
Less than a minute later, Natalee Henry joined in on the scoring party, making it 4-0. Her goal is her third of the season, which is two shy of her career-high of five goals, which she set last season.
In the 60th minute, Hallie Field scored in front of the net off a corner kick from Jalen Donaldson to blow the game wide open and making it 5-0.
To put the finishing touches on the game, freshman Taylor Spitzer put home a shot in the final minute for her first career goal off passes from Emme' Fernandez and Sam Hanking.
"I think Emme' was more excited than I was on my goal," Spitzer said. "I've been getting these opportunities and haven't been able to put them in the back of the net in the past games, but for it to finally happen, it's like a relief that has been lifted off my shoulders.
"The team was waiting for it to happen, and I am so excited it happened today at home."
Fifteen Northwestern State players have tallied points already this season, which is already more than the conference champion 2021 team that had 11 players scratch the point column.
NSU dominated play, controlling possession for virtually the entire contest, as evidenced by a 23-5 shot disparity. For the fourth time in five games, Northwestern State has registered at least 18 shot attempts and are 3-0-1 in those contests.
The home team also had 16 corner kicks, compared to none for the Lady Tigers.
NSU begins conference play with a home date with UIW on Sunday in the rematch of the Southland Conference Tournament title game from last season before ending the stretch of three consecutive at home with a visit from Lamar.
"It gives us a boost, scoring goals like we have," Gore said. "Hopefully we haven't run out of goals going into Sunday. To be fair to Jackson State, they were really tough, and I expect it to be no different against Incarnate Word."
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