A bashing success: UTEP women roll past Prairie View in Border Bash soccer tourney finale

UTEP put the bash in the Border Bash this weekend at University Field -- roaring away to a 4-0 victory over Houston Baptist on Friday night and then going virtually unchallenged in a 4-0 win over Prairie View A&M on a hot, sun-swept Sunday afternoon.

The Miners, now 3-0 in the young soccer season, simply smothered the Panthers with relentless pressure in the first half. Prairie View, now 0-3, was hunkered down in a bunker defense, sending everyone back to try and thwart the Miner attack.

No luck.

UTEP's first goal came on a fine corner kick from Katie Dorman. She dropped the ball in front of the goal, it was banged around and the Panthers suffered the dreaded own goal ... inadvertently knocking it in themselves in the 13th minute.

Sophomore defender Kenah Linger sent a wonderful cross from deep on the far right wing and freshman Lauren Katada touched it home to give UTEP a 2-0 lead in the 24th minute. Before Prairie View could get used to the idea it was down 2-zip, Brittany Kindzierski made it 3-zip. In perhaps the finest goal of the day, Kindzierski stopped the ball in front of the net, pivoted and drilled it into the upper portion of the net and, in the 25th minute, the Miners were cruising with that 3-0 lead.

Another freshman-sophomore duo finished the Miner flurry. Sophomore Jade Babcock sent a nice cross to freshman Mackenzie German who one-timed it home and in the 28th minute the Miners had all the goals they would need.

UTEP coach Kevin Cross

began substituting liberally from that moment on but you can't get everyone off the field and out of harm's way and, unfortunately, the Miners sustained a pair of injuries ... a pair of key injuries. Midfielder Tori Martyn landed awkwardly after going for a header and injured her ankle. Next, midfielder Gina Soto was hit by a hard tackle -- one that was yellow carded -- and also suffered an ankle injury. "They say Tori will be OK," Cross said. "We don't know about Gina. She's going to have to have X-Rays."

Senior defender Jessie Pettit said, "That's two of our best midfielders right there and that makes me nervous. That's two tough spots to fill."

Tess Hall, one of the team's top scoring threats, sat out the weekend with a quadriceps injury. She is expected back next weekend when the Miners go on the road to play Stephen F. Austin and Texas State.

Other than the injuries, it was a good day for the Miners on this sizzling Sunday.

"We want to be improving every game," Dorman said. "We want to play every game better and I think we did that. We got up 4-0 in the first half and then we had some things we wanted to work on. You couldn't tell it because we didn't score, but we got some good work in. Most of all, we came out with two wins and we can take that on the road. We have to be better on the road than we were last year."

The Miners have now outscored their three opponents -- New Mexico State, Houston Baptist and Prairie View -- by a combined 10-0.

"We used this game to try to work on some things," Pettit said. "Defensively, we have a lot more depth this year. For example, Houston last year just kept coming at us and they wore us down. This year we can stay fresh."

The Miners stayed fresh this weekend, simply enjoying soccer life by putting the bash in the Border Bash.

Bill Knight may be reached at bknight@elpasotimes.com; 546-6171.