By Joshua Huff, sports editor
TRUSSVILLE — First-year Hewitt-Trussville girls’ soccer head coach Lauren Wooten has the Huskies clicking on all cylinders throughout the early stages of this season as the program recorded their seventh victory and first area win on Monday after a 3-0 silencing of Mountain Brook.
The Huskies now sit at 7-1 with their only loss coming against Chelsea, 3-4, to open the season.
Led behind a stout defense anchored by sophomore Hannah O’Kelle, who was named the 2020 Lakeshore Shootout Gold Division MVP, Hewitt-Trussville has not allowed a single goal since it allowed four goals in that opening-season loss to Chelsea. The Huskies followed that defeat with a 1-0 victory over Hoover, a 2-0 victory over Daphne, a 2-0 victory over Fort Payne, a 3-0 Lakeshore Shootout Gold Division championship victory over Trinity Presbyterian, a 4-0 victory over Prattville Valley and an 11-0 victory over Pinson Valley.
“I think the girls can tell you that I’ve changed just about everything,” Wooten said prior to the start of the season. “I’m really big on team bonding. We’ve done a lot of team building during our athletics course. We did a more intense preseason of weightlifting and cardio training. I feel like I’ve implemented more organization to the program. You have to ask the girls about it, but I think that it’s gone well.”
Many would say that this season as gone quite well so far for Wooten and the Huskies.
Their dominance continued on Monday as they opened Class 7A, Area 6 play against the undefeated Spartans.
Hewitt-Trussville wasted little time in placing its mark on the game as Lizzy Hurst finished off an assist from Taylor Doss to put the Huskies on the board first, 1-0. Soon thereafter, Allison Kerins added a header off a corner to increase Hewitt-Trussville’s lead to 2-0. Hurst would add a bit of cushion in the second half with her second goal of the game following an assist from Julia Farris.
The Huskies’ 7-1 record is their best start since opening the 2017 season with the same record.
Of note, Hewitt-Trussville has outscored its opponents 26-4 through eight games this season.
Wooten, a graduate of Mississippi State, grew up in Chelsea and graduated from Chelsea High School in 2011. She was selected to represent the North team in the North-South All-Star game in 2010. During her senior year, the Lady Hornets advanced to the state championship game for the first time in school history. She received an athletic scholarship to Itawamba Community College where she was selected as a team captain, a National Junior College Athletic Association Academic All-American, and was nominated as a Mississippi All-State Women’s Soccer player.