Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

WEST BRANCH – A strong start is on the verge of turning into a historic season for the West Branch girls soccer program.

With every win West Branch seems to get a little closer to reaching a new milestone for a young program that is in just its sixth season of competition.

The Bears took another step in that direction on Monday with a 6-0 win over Northeast (1-8) in a River Valley Conference match at the Little Rose Bowl in West Branch.

Sophomore Grace Hamann scored all three of her goals in the first half as West Branch improved to 5-2 on the season with its third consecutive win.

“We came into the game really confident,” Hamann said. “We’ve been having a good season so far so we are just trying to keep doing what we are doing.”

West Branch needs one more win to match the most in program history.

The Bears need three just wins in its final seven regular season matches and the postseason to secure the first winning season in program history.

A win over Bellevue (3-3-1) on Friday would match the school record for consecutive victories at four.

The growth for the Bears is evident in the win column, on the state sheet and perhaps most noticeably in the play on the field.

“I think our team has really grown from two years ago,” Hamann said. “Our program and everybody has learned the game. Our program is really new so it’s a learning curve and we are picking up the basics of the game and trying to perfect them.”

Hamann, who is one of several players on the West Branch roster that splits time between soccer and track in the spring, got the Bears rolling early.

The sophomore standout scored three goals in the final 28 minutes of the opening half as West Branch took a 4-0 halftime lead.

“We have a very young group and we had everyone here today,” West Branch co-head coach Jose Gongora said. “When we have all of our girls it makes a big difference.”

The four first-half goals came after West Branch managed three goals in a win at Monticello on Friday and were more than the Bears had in any match since putting up seven goals in a season-opening win over Central Lee.

Hamann scored in the 12^th minute and made it 2-0 with a second goal with 23:15 remaining.

Senior captain MadeLynn Falco made the score 3-0 with a goal with 20:12 remaining in the opening half.

“We were taking a lot of shots and trying to improve from our last game when we didn’t have a very good shooting night,” Hamann said. “I think everyone just wanted to redeem themselves, me especially and I think that was a big factor tonight.

Hamann pushed the halftime margin to 4-0 with a goal with 4:10 remaining in the opening half.

“We put an emphasis on great passing,” West Branch co-head coach Rebeckah Hosier said. “We know we have Grace and she has great speed and can out run people but she is doing track too and we have to make sure we are using other people and passing the ball.”

Melayne Burmeister and Jenie Gomez added second-half goals for West Branch which has scored three or more goals in all five wins this season.

“We have Melayna (Burmeister) and Katlynn (Waite) who also have great kicks and we knew with the wind today we wanted to take advantage of that with their legs on the outside,” Hosier said. “I think we did that. Maddie had a great set up as well. They are really clicking.”

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