TAWAS AREA - Apr. 29, 2009 - The Tawas Area girls soccer team had been struggling to score through the first half of the season. But for a night, especially the first 15 minutes of Wednesday's contest against arch-rival Oscoda, the Braves looked like the team they expected to be this season.

Tawas blitzed the Owls with four goals in the first 15 minutes, led 5-0 at the half and ended up with a 7-3 victory.

"We did better passing the ball tonight," said Tawas coach Ken Cook. "Things collapsed (in the second half) and we didn't do as good a job after we got the first five goals."

Jenny Jacques opened the scoring in the game's fifth minute. Less than 60 seconds later Jordan Zimmer found Audrey Thoryk racing in from the right side, and Thoryk punched the ball just inside the undefended right post for a quick 2-0 lead.

Zimmer converted a penalty kick at the 10 minute mark, and Alyssa Gracik scored the first of her two goals five minutes later.

Gina Gerow scored 13 minutes before the half to make it 5-0.

Oscoda was a different team in the second half, getting scores from Chesea Carraway and Rushelle Sidebottom in the first 15 minutes after the break.

"We came back and scored three goals after being down five at the half," said Oscoda coach Gary Schneider. "The girls showed no quit and fought back hard."

Tawas got the momentum back on the most spectacular goal of the night. Ali Junquist lofted a corner kick to the far side of the goal, and Gracik one-touched it in on the fly to make it 6-2 at the midpoint of the second half.

Ali Chapelski scored with six minutes remaining, and Sidebottom drilled a direct kick just under the crossbar inside the left post for the final goal with 20 seconds left.

"Oscoda stepped up their game in the second half, which made it difficult to play the bench," Cook said. "Carly Meshew, Gina Gerow and Jordan Zimmer did a nice job setting up the play over and over again, and Lydia Kauffman had a couple great corner kicks."

Meshew finished with two assists and Jacques added one.

Katia Kotula led Oscoda's defense with 10 intercepts and three steals while Krystin Inman finished with eight intercepts and Katy Peacock had three steals and six intercepts. Inman and Dani Griffin also had assists for the Owls.

Tawas improved to 4-5 on the season, while Oscoda dropped to 4-4. The Braves host Nouvel on Thursday and Oscoda travels to Gladwin on Friday, May 1.