AUBURN — Don’t give the Monmouth girls’ soccer team a second chance to find the frame.

That was the hard lesson Tuesday afternoon for St. Dom’s. Goalkeeper Nicole Robitaille could get close enough to tip, juggle or distract initial scoring bids. The Mustangs are just too good and too balanced, though, when nobody cleans up the leftovers.

Monmouth scored four goals in a 5-minute, 25-second span of the first half — the first three courtesy of those rebounds — and raced away 5-1 in a Mountain Valley Conference showdown.

Sophomore Haley Fletcher had a hat trick for the undefeated Mustangs (8-0-1). Izzy Lewis added a goal and an assist. Sidney Wilson scored to start it all.

“We definitely picked up our game,” Fletcher said. “It seemed like during warmup maybe we were a little flat, but we came out and once we scored a goal it was like we wanted more and more.”

Senior striker Faith Grady scored the lone goal for undermanned St. Dom’s (7-2) with 30:12 remaining in the game. 

Already missing sophomore starters Kaylynn Linck and Hannah Phelan, the Saints’ injury woes went from bad to potentially disastrous when Grady was carted off with a lower leg injury in the final minute of the game.

“All you can do is hope that it’s not serious,” St. Dom’s coach Alicia Pelletier said. “Unfortunately it wasn’t our day today. We knew they had scoring potential. They’ve had a lot of girls score. Our key has been stopping that. If we can’t stop it, we’re not a high-scoring team, so we can’t expect to win a game if we let in that many.”

Something had to give. St. Dom’s allowed only eight goals in its first seven games, while Monmouth has been flooding the net at a clip of more than five per contest.

The Mustangs made their continuous pressure pay off with 18:39 remaining in the first half. Sammy Grandahl threaded a through-ball to Lewis at the far post.

First-year starter Robitaille charged from her station and was able to get a hand on it, but she couldn’t return in time to stop an uncontested Wilson from polishing off the deflection.

“It was very nice. We came out real hard in the first half,” Monmouth coach Gary Trafton said. “The kids had their opportunities, and we cashed in. It came on quick.”

Lewis connected for a 2-0 lead with 17:33 left after a long-range shot trickled through Robitaille’s clutches.

Then came back-to-back strikes from Fletcher in a stretch of 53 seconds. On the first, she beat a defender one-on-one from the midfield. Again, Robitaille made the first stop, but Fletcher wasn’t denied on the follow.

Abby Allen then set up Fletcher’s laser from 20 yards.

“We had some nice passes, and I just capitalized on those chances,” Fletcher said. “This is a big win for us. We’ve been wanting to beat St. Dom’s, because they beat us last year to get us out of the playoffs.”

Robitaille kept it from potentially escalating into a six or seven-goal deficit, making 11 of her 17 saves prior to intermission.

St. Dom’s had its own chances, too.

“It could have been a very different game if we’d kicked in one of those we kicked over or to the side early,” Pelletier said. “Faith had one over the top, Tia (Rotolico) had one to the left, and if we bury one of those early it changes the whole momentum of the game.”

Fletcher answered Grady with her third of the game, courtesy of Grandahl’s corner kick, with 15 minutes left.

Monmouth marked Grady with multiple defenders throughout.

Olivia Homer drew the primary assignment, with Shannon Buzzell sagging off and providing support when needed.

“We know how good Faith is. She broke through more times than I was happy about,” Trafton said. “The girls weathered it, and then we kind of got back in the flow of things in the second half.”

Most of St. Dom’s 10 second-half shots, and 18 for the game, flew off Grady’s foot. 

Mikayla Cameron made 11 saves for the Mustangs.

“She’s always double-teamed, triple-teamed. She plays as clean as can be and gets nailed and continues to play clean,” Pelletier said of Grady. “I don’t know how she does it. She has a calm about her and a determination than I envy and admire. She just is a fighter. She doesn’t resort to the things that other teams do to try to take her out.”

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