Mt. Pleasant, IA- The stage was set for history to be made: a conference rival, the home crowd at East Lake, and typical Midwest averse spring weather conditions. On a muddy pitch in Mt. Pleasant, the girls’ soccer team blitzed Fairfield to a 5-1 final and a career moment for Panther senior Charice Auwerda.
Auwerda has been a force for the Panther program since her freshman season where she netted 13 goals and assisted on 20 other goals, helping teammate Elly Manning set the career point mark at 180 for the program.
She entered Thursday night’s contest against the Trojans with 176 career points. A milestone that almost went unnoticed by her,
“It’s been really fun. I haven’t really thought about it until Dad told me about it. Like, you know, last week. And I didn’t realize that I was that close to it. And obviously, like, it’s a really good moment. It feels really nice.”
In terms of the matchup, it was the first Southeast Conference showdown of the year, but Fairfield had a bit of an edge, defeating Mediapolis 2-0 while the Panthers tied the Bulldogs at one apiece to open the season. Nevertheless, Mt. Pleasant owned a 12-game win streak over the Trojans.
Moreover, Fairfield had been shutout by the Panthers since 2019.
Through the first ten minutes of the contest, history was playing out before the crowd’s eyes as Tori Wilson and Auwerda each put two goals in the back of the net to give Mt. Pleasant a quick 4 to 0 lead.
An early evening rainstorm added to the mystique of the game, as the waterlogged field slowed down the offense after Fairfield ended the six-year drought when Haleigh Strickland scored a goal before 20 minutes had passed in the game.
The contest then transformed into a stalemate with aggressive plays resulting in yellow cards and frustration, but the Panthers kept their cool.
“We’ve been working a lot about physicality, wanting to play strong, play tough and always play through the ball,” said Panther head coach Chris Davis. “No backing down, just it’s all about mentality. We got to give it our all.”
Despite owning a 4 to 1 lead at halftime, Mt. Pleasant pressed the issue, and all eyes were on Auwerda, who was tied with Manning at 180 points after her two goals. In a flash, Auwerda, positioned in the slot, glided through the air and notched a hat trick with a header: 182 points, the new record.
Immediately, the senior was swarmed by her teammates on the field; unfortunately, as the moments ticked away realization overtook the Panther fans that the proud father, who recorded everything, had missed the shot in a form of irony usually reserved for Shakespeare.
Yet, the moment will be cherished as Auwerda took photos after the game with her teammates and shared an emotional moment with her father, realizing all the hard work that had led to this moment. One big Panther family for the new record holder,
“You know what? Like, I honestly can’t do it without my teammates. They’ve been really nice to me. It’s just really a big family and I really can’t do it without them.”
Coach Davis talked about his captain after the game,
“I’ve known Charice since she was real little playing club ball. It’s been a pleasure having her with us for the program, I couldn’t ask for a better player.”
The Panthers now sit at 3-0-1 for the season after that tie to start the season, while Fairfield dropped to 1-1. The Trojans will attempt to right the ship on Monday, April 14th, at home against Fort Madison.
For Coach Davis, he’s hoping this early season confidence sets the tone for the season,
“We want to keep going with what we’re what we’ve been doing, you know, moving the ball. And just making positive plays and not and not getting down on ourselves. We’ve been lucky enough so far that we haven’t been behind yet this season. When that happens, we got to be able to make sure we’re mentally prepared.”
While Auwerda is hoping to end her career with a winning record, similar to the 2022 season that saw the Panthers advance to the Regional Semifinals,
“You know what? It’s still like very early in the season and we’ve got a couple of wins under our belt. So that’s really good. That’ll pump us up and we’re still progressing. And I think that, you know, the more that we play together, some more practices that we get into, we’re going to connect more and I’m really, really hoping for a really good record this year.”
Mt. Pleasant is back on the road for a conference matchup against Washington on Monday at 5 pm as Auwerda still has 11 regular season games to add on to her career point tally.