September 24, 2011 Wilmington College scored two goals in the first 9 minutes of play and went on to shut out Mount Union, 4-0, in both teams’ Ohio Athletic Conference opener at Charlie Gilhart Field Saturday night. The Quakers are now 3-4-2 overall while the Purple Raiders fall to 5-3-1. “This was a good result for us,” Wilmington head coach Steve Spirk said. “We started the game strong and scored early. That was important. The girls were very focused today, and that’s how you want to start play in the OAC.” Any questions about Wilmington’s focus were answered 13 seconds into the game when Sarah Watters (Cincinnati/Turpin) swiped the ball off the opening kickoff and ripped a shot into the Mount Union goal for her third score of the year. Watters not only established a team record for the fastest goal at the start of a game, she also lit the fuse on a Wilmington explosion. The Quakers went up, 2-0, in the 9th minute when Lauren Price (Xenia/Waynesville) collected a loose ball and volleyed a shot past the Mount Union keeper. The goal was Price’s third of the season. Camille Gentile (Brownsburg, Ind.) got her head on a deflection and flicked a shot into the Raiders’ goal in the 24th minute to give the Quakers a 3-0 advantage at the break. “At halftime, I reminded our players of the Rhodes Tournament, where we got ahead of Rhodes, 3-0, and then gave up three second-half goals and ended up tying 3-3. We just weren’t focused in the second half. Our demeanor wasn’t quite what it needed to be, so we made sure that did not happen tonight,” Spirk said. The Quakers kept the pressure on the Raiders and went up, 4-0, when Gentile scored her second goal of the game off a Britney Beck (Monroe/Lemon-Monroe) assist in the 67th minute. Freshman keeper Hannah Riffel (Circleville/Logan Elm) went the distance in goal to collect her second shutout of the season. Wilmington took 18 shots to Mount Union’s 12, and won the corner kick battle, 5-4. “We have had some tough losses against good opponents in our pre-conference schedule,” Spirk said. “Hopefully, we learned some lessons that benefited us tonight and will continue to benefit us down the road.”