As a prelude to its looming showdown at Moberly, the Fulton Lady Hornets soccer team badgered another opponent into shooting blanks.
Fulton junior forward Lola Weiss delivered three goals and assisted on two others, and the Lady Hornets remained undefeated by posting their eighth shutout in as many games this season - 7-0 over School of the Osage on Friday night.
Limiting Osage - which is in its first season of varsity soccer - to a scant one shot on goal, Fulton (8-0) has now outscored its opponents by a decisive 39-0 margin.
"The girls came out right from the beginning ready to play," Lady Hornets head coach Kati Wallace said. "We had a lot of changes to the lineup and moved people around; everyone got a lot of playing time."
Sophomore forward Jenny McCarty opened Fulton's scoring with an unassisted goal in the 7th minute of the first half and senior stopper Nicole Gramlich made it 2-0 with another unassisted goal in the 15th minute. Weiss followed with her first goal, also unassisted, in the 26th minute.
Sophomore midfielder Kate Sterner then initiated a three-goal flurry by the Lady Hornets over a 4-minute span, directing a header into the net off a corner kick by Weiss in the 30th minute. Senior midfielder Kara Henry was next up when she took a Weiss assist and scored in the 32nd minute.
Weiss sent Fulton into halftime with a comfortable 6-0 advantage when she produced her second unassisted goal in the 34th minute.
The lone score in the second half came on Weiss' unassisted goal in the 38th minute. The Lady Hornets finished with 20 shots on goal and eight corner kicks.
Sophomore goalkeeper Billie Klutts, making her second straight varsity start, picked up the shutout. Wallace opted to rest senior goalkeeper Liz Foreman - who remained sore after being involved in a car accident last week - for another game.
Fulton (1-4-1) bowed in the junior varsity game 1-0.
A streak of some sort is definitely going to end when the Lady Hornets travel to Moberly on Monday night for their North Central Missouri Conference confrontation with the Lady Spartans. Both teams are 4-0 in the NCMC and Moberly is riding a remarkable 29-game conference winning streak.
The Lady Spartans are 6-1 overall and are coming off a 3-1 NCMC victory at Mexico on Thursday night.
"The girls know it's Moberly, they know their track record and they know they're an amazing team," Wallace said. "But we've improved a lot, as well. It's going to be an amazing game to watch. The girls are ready for it.
"We need to be a united team of seventeen (players), and give a full eighty minutes."
Weiss - who shared the mid-Missouri lead in scoring with Moberly junior Kelly Ross entering last week's play - tops Fulton with 11 goals. Sterner is next with eight goals, followed by sophomore midfielder Adrienne Ebersole with seven.
Henry and McCarty both have five goals. Sophomore stopper Anna Fink leads the Lady Hornets with 11 assists, while Weiss has seven.
"We need to continue to come out from the very beginning (Monday night) and play our game," Wallace said. "We cannot be afraid to set the tone."
Ross has 10 goals on the season to guide the Lady Spartans. She scored on a penalty kick to put Moberly in front to stay in its win over Mexico.
"We have to realize in the first five minutes what's coming at us - from their speed to their formations," Wallace said of the Lady Spartans. "We have to get ourselves organized, get ready to adapt to them and then pick them up.
"Then we need to get the ball back to our offense; a quick transition game will be key."
The junior varsity game will be played first at 5 p.m. Monday.