The Memorial Mustangs girls soccer team defended their 2007 title Saturday afternoon with a 6-0 win over Elsik in the championship game of the Spring Branch ISD tournament.

The Mustangs scored three goals in the first half, a vast improvement from their morning game versus Fort Bend Kempner.

“In our first game this morning we were slow out of the gate,” Memorial coach Kim York said. “I think it kind of sunk into the girls that we could have lost that game.

“Between games, they had a little bit of food, rest and they talked quite a bit. They came together as a team and decided they can’t always play catch up.”

At 37:52, forward Morgan Zabel head-butted the ball into the net for her first goal of the game. Zabel was assisted by teammate Allie Russo to put the Mustangs on top 1-0.

Ten minutes later, midfielder Beth Herlin made it 2-0 after kicking it straight into the goal. The third goal of the first half came from Zabel as she had a wide open shot and took it.

“They started playing cohesively and I think that helped them win this game,” York said.

Elsik came out in the second half and put a little pressure on Memorial for the first time that game. Elsik kept the ball on Memorial’s side of the field and took a few goal shots in the first nine minutes of play.

Then at 31:11, midfielder Merritt Shivitz scored the Mustangs’ fourth goal. Following her at 10:26 was defender Jenny Shaw. Shaw scored again with 3:06 left.

“We still have another week-and-a-half left of preseason,” York said. “We are just going to take things one game at a time and just make sure we are building from game to game.”

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