Stephanie Martin landed in stride right where she left after leading the soccer team in goals a season ago.

The junior forward had a hand in all three of the CMU’s goals in its 3-1 season-debut win Friday at the University of Detroit.

Martin began the scoring early, netting a goal just more than one minute into the game.

She launched a shot from just outside the 18-foot line for the first of three goals Central would score before the half was over.

“I was just happy because coach said to come out and play with effort and emotion in the first five minutes,” Martin said.

Fellow junior forward Molly Gerst took a pass from Martin in the 19th minute and scored to increase the team’s lead to two goals.

Martin later passed to sophomore midfielder Valerie Prause from the right side to about five feet from the goal in the 27th minute to take a 3-0 lead into the half. The goal was Prause’s first of her career.

“We started off on the right foot. We capitalized in the first minute,” said coach Tony DiTucci. “We scored three goals in the first 27 minutes – I’m pleased with our attack.”

But DiTucci wanted to see more consistency from his team after inconsistency plagued it last season. He wanted to see some mental toughness as the team took a lead into the second half.

But any damage was minimal, as sophomore goalkeeper Shay Mannino allowed only one goal, which came seven minutes into the second half.

Mannino played all 90 minutes and ended the game with four saves.

“I thought she was good – definitely well prepared. She played with a lot of confidence and did a solid job,” DiTucci said. “Shay playing with confidence only makes us better.”

Mannino will most likely see the majority of playing time early in the season as junior Kristen Hubright recovers from an injury and freshman Katherine Howard continues to develop.

DiTucci said he was happy with his team’s overall play, but would still like to see improvements in its defensive organization.

But he said these are both things the team can control, and it will work on both in practice this week.

Central stays on the road for a match at 7 p.m. CST Friday against Oklahoma in Stillwater, Okla.

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