MCMINNVILLE, Ore. --- Linfield women's soccer continued its strong start to the 2025 season with a convincing 2-0 home victory over Redlands on Sunday afternoon at the Linfield Soccer/Lacrosse Complex. Behind a steady defensive performance and two second-half goals, the Wildcats improved their record to 2-0-2, while Redlands fell to 0-3-1.
Coming off of a dominant 5-2 victory in Friday's home-opener, the Wildcats brought the winning momentum into Sunday's matchup, taking four shots in the first 20-minutes of the game. Junior keeper
Alexa Fritz started the game strong, making a pair of saves to keep the match scoreless.
Defender
Reese Jones had a last-minute attempt at the end of the first half of play, but her shot from outside the box was stopped by the Bulldogs keeper. The match entered halftime still scoreless.
The Wildcats generated five shots, with efforts from
Lena Caballero Uhtoff and
Jocelyn Jacobs forcing saves and creating early chances.
Linfield came out of the break with offense in mind, as in the 57
th minute, midfielder
Ruby Lacktrup scored her first goal of the season after a cross from defender
Marley Ells bounced off the keeper's hands and at the feet of Lacktrup. Lacktrup's strike gave the Wildcats the first lead of the game.
The offense didn't take their foot off of the gas though, as the Wildcats continued to swarm the Bulldogs' defense, generating 10 shots in the second half. Finally, in the 77th minute, Linfield doubled its advantage. Freshman forward
Lize Rendon slotted home her second goal of the season after a long ball out of the back from Fritz, who earned the assist from her goalkeeper position.
From there, Linfield tightened up defensively, allowing only one Redlands shot in the second half. Fritz capped her strong day with a late save, completing her clean sheet with three total stops. For Fritz, her second clean sheet of the season, and her first save in her 33 career games played at Linfield.
The Wildcats outshot the Bulldogs 15-4, held a 5-1 edge in corner kicks, with a season-best eight shots on target.
The 'Cats kick off the Northwest Conference season next Friday in Forest Grove, Oregon, where they take on the Pacific Boxers at 5 p.m.
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