LONDON, Ont. - Second-year midfielder Sophie Weaver earned her first goal of her career and totaled three on the day to help lead the Western women's soccer team to an 8-0 victory over the Algoma Thunderbirds on Saturday afternoon on Mustangs Field. 

With the win, the Mustangs improve to 6-0-4 on the season as they remain in second place and continue to chase the Guelph Gryphons for the lead in the OUA West division. The Thunderbirds' loss will drop them to 0-8-1 on the season, as they sit at the bottom of the OUA West division. 

"Sophie's been a great piece for us all season long, regardless of what shows up on the stat sheet, but it was really good to see her earn a few goals for us today because she deserved each of them," said Mustangs head coach Martin Painter. "It was good to get a bunch for girls on the board today. We got contributions from almost the entire team and that bodes well for our depth moving forward. 

"Obviously it felt good to be able to score three today, especially since they were my first three goals of my career," said Weaver. "The biggest thing is not getting in your own head when you have a chance. You just have to trust yourself and your instinct and I was able to do today." 

Four other Mustangs found the back of the net in the win, as Nikki Balachorek, Kendra Marlatt, Katrina Giantsopoulos, and Giulia Geraci each scored to help grow the Western lead, with Marlatt scoring a pair of goals on the day. 

Western controlled the ball early and often against the Thunderbirds to begin the match and were rewarded early for their efforts, as Balachorek netted the first goal of the game to give the Mustangs the early 1-0 lead. The Mustangs continued their attack throughout the opening 20 minutes of the match, as Marlatt scored her first goal of the day the extend the lead to 2-0 for the purple and white. Giantsopoulos scored once again for the Mustangs, followed by Marlatt for her second of the game as Western extended their lead to 4-0 heading into halftime. 

The Mustangs continued their dominance into the second half as Sophie Weaver kicked off the second half with a goal to extend the Western lead to 5-0. Weaver would put in two more later in the half, earning her second and third goals of the game and giving Western the 7-0 advantage. Giulia Geraci would chip in one final goal as the Mustangs went on to cruise to the 8-0 victory. 

"I think today was a really strong team effort," said Weaver. "We all trust each other and our offence feeds off that. All our work kind of showed itself today." 

"It's tough to look at games like this and think that we still have stuff to work on, but there's always ways to improve," said Painter. "It's a different dynamic, facing Algoma again tomorrow, but today was a good reflection of what we can do." 

The Mustangs will be back in action tomorrow, Sunday, September 30, where they will have a rematch with the Algoma Thunderbirds on Mustangs Field. The game is scheduled to begin at 12:00 P.M. EST.