CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi soccer team earned its first win of the 2025 season in style on Sunday evening, using a steady offensive outburst to dispatch fellow system school Texas A&M-San Antonio by a final of 6-0.
The day for the Islanders (1-1-2) started about as quickly as possible, with the team blitzing the Jaguars (0-1) just one minute and one second into the match when sophomore
Cilia Leal received a pass from redshirt senior
Madison Page and banged home a left-footed shot from just inside the box for her first goal of the year. The score helped the Islanders strike first blood in the second time in as many matches after conceding first in each of their first two, and it marked their earliest goal in any contest since all the way back on October 21, 2022, when Rebekah George found the back of the net in one minute flat in a home conference game against Northwestern State.
After coming close to scoring again on many different occasions after this, the Islanders found the net again in the 32
nd minute on the first goal in the collegiate career of freshman
Isabella Castellanos Lopes. After receiving the ball just outside the box following an unsuccessful run from the team on the right side, Castellanos Lopes turned on the burners to beat her defender near the left endline, creating a one-on-one with the keeper and putting her shot into the lower left corner to double up A&M-Corpus Christi's lead heading into the break.
The time in the locker room did not slow down the potent Islanders attack, as right out of halftime, they came out on fire with two more goals in a span of just over 20 minutes. The first of these came in the 52
nd minute, when junior
Katie Porter received a corner kick from freshman
Daylan Nates and sent it into the left side of the net with a header for both her first goal and Nates' first point as a member of the team. Just 15 minutes later, it was Leal picking up the first brace of her career, with the forward blasting a shot from just outside the box into the top left corner to make it two goals for her on the day and four for the team in total.
Even with the game in hand, the Islanders closed the day out on a high note, putting two more scores on the ledger by the time the clock struck zero. In the 84
th minute, Page was taken down in the box while making a run, earning a penalty kick and sending it home herself for her first goal with the squad. Finally, senior
Morgan Westbury joined the fun with just under a minute to go, finding the ball right at her feet after a cleared cross by the keeper and tapping it in to bring the total up to six on the day. This was Westbury's first score of the year and the 13
th of her five-year career, moving her back into a tie for fourth place in program history with senior
Mai-Lisa Atis after she gained the edge with her goal against Texas Southern on Thursday.
The six goals that the Islanders put into the back of the net were their most in any game since September 1, 2023, when they took home a victory by the same score against Prairie View A&M. They also attempted a whopping 43 shots and 18 corner kicks throughout the match, both of which represent new single-game records in program history. In total, 15 of the 19 outfield players that saw time for the team on the day attempted at least one shot, and six of them put multiple attempts on target, with the most being four from sophomore
Maddy Howells.
The Islanders will now prepare for their longest stretch of away games of the season, hitting the road for each of their next three contests. The first of these comes on Thursday at 7 p.m., when they head to Huntsville for a clash with Sam Houston State.
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