The Lady Panthers defeated the Griffin Bears in an offense-heavy region match. Starr’s Mill used their offensive dominance to shutout Griffin 10-0 in a game that ended under the “mercy rule.”

“We played much better in a similar situation earlier in the year,” head coach John Bowen said. “We didn’t have a passion to excel.”

Contrary to Bowen’s words, the Lady Panthers dominated the Bears in every category of the stat book.  Starr’s Mill took 45 total shots (20 on goal) that yielded 10 goals on the night. On the other side of the field, the Bears struggled to get the ball past the mid-field line,  only crossing it three times and having zero shots on goal and zero shots the entire match.

As the match began, it was clear that the Mill would dominate. In the first 30 seconds there was an attempt at goal. Starr’s Mill had two more attempts at goal before the first goal of the game was scored in the sixth minute by freshman Chloe Thompson. Senior Macy Voorhies assisted on the strike and the Panthers grabbed an early 1-0 lead. In the next minute, the Panthers ran the ball down the field and junior Meritt Parker scored the second goal of the night from within the goalie box.

“We did not play very well,” freshman Sophia Varmeziar said. “Our intensity was really low. We could’ve finished that game a lot quicker.”

Starr’s Mill attacked the goal over and over again as the Bears attempted to kick the ball out. The Bears could not get the ball past the 35 yard line which allowed the Lady Panthers to have multiple attempts at goal before scoring again in the 14th minute with a goal from freshman Sarah Evans, assisted by Thompson.

The Panthers remained aggressive and Varmeziar scored the fourth goal of the game from just within the goalie box in the 16th minute of the game.

The game took a turn and the Mill struggled to get shots into the goal for the next 11 minutes until freshman Ali Rumpel scored a goal only a few feet away from the goal. Rumpel went on to score once again three minutes later off of a corner kick.

The first half ended with Varmeziar scoring two times in a four minute interval. The first goal came from shooting from just within the box with the second coming off of a corner kick. The first half ended with a score of 8-0.

“We just need to maintain our levels of expectations, and not what other people put on us,” Bowen said. “It doesn’t matter what the score is, who we play, [or] what color they wear. What matters is that we work hard and work as a unit.”

The second half was initially shortened to 20 minutes, and Parker scored the 9th goal in the 45th minute with an assist from Thompson. The last goal of the game was scored by Evans in the 48th minute that ended the game under the “mercy rule.”

The Mill will play next in a varsity region doubleheader tomorrow at Morrow starting at 5:30 p.m. and will return home on March 20 in another varsity doubleheader starting at 5:55 p.m. against Walton.