Whip-Purs shut out Burlington Central

When Hampshire finally beat Burlington Central in soccer, the Whip-Purs made it emphatic.

Christine Schumacher scored twice and Kelly Plichta had 4 assists as Hampshire downed the Rockets, 6-0, in Big Northern East action in Burlington.

"We really came out ready to play today," said Schumacher. "That's been one of our goals since before the season was to beat Burlington."

After 9 years of frustration against their archrival, the Whip-Purs took control early and never let up. Playing virtually the entire first half in the Rockets' end, the Whips took the lead early on goals by Kristy Pfaffinger and Kelsey Burke.

"It's nice, definitely, to have that pressure," said Hampshire coach Patrick O'Brien. "Percentage-wise, having that amount of time down there (in the offensive end), you're going to put some balls in."

Schumacher then scored twice, sandwiched around halftime. Cassie Dumoulin and Kayla Meyer added late goals for Hampshire (4-2-2, 4-0), which has allowed just one goal ­­­­-­-on a penalty kick - -in its last 6 games.

Pfaffinger got the scoring going about 6 minutes in on a nice cross from Alex Field. Five minutes later, Burke made it 2-0, taking Plichta's pass and firing a rocket past Rocket goalkeeper Kirby McMahon from pointblank range.

Hampshire keeper Alex Heinrich made just 2 saves on the evening.

Central coach Mike Gecan just hopes it's a learning experience for his young Rockets.

"Hopefully, they get to learn for the future," he said. "Hopefully, that future will be the next time we play them, not next year. That's our goal right now, is to see how quickly we can learn from these experiences. Stop giving up goals and start scoring goals, that's our objective."