Box Score GORHAM, Maine—When Gordon head coach Marc Whitehouse mentioned that he wanted to have a fast start shortly before the season opener versus Thomas College (ME), he could not have possibly imagined the results that would unfold before his eyes. The Fighting Scots scored their first goal of the season only 26 seconds into the first period before adding eight more scores to the board until the final horn sounded for a 9-0 victory over the Terriers.
 
Thomas began the game with possession of the ball, but Gordon's high-powered offense converged on Terriers' attack from the minute the whistle blew. Losing the initial flip of the coin would be the last time Gordon lost anything on the evening.
 
A quick turnover by the Terriers led to an early opportunity for the Fighting Scots' attack. Gordon's leading scorer from a season ago, Taylor McSherry took control of the Thomas' mistake and found Hannah Midwinter virtually unguarded in the middle of the field. Midwinter took two touches to her right and sent a strike into the right corner of the net less than 30 ticks into the contest.
 
Only three minutes later, midfielder Jamie Breton took over another Thomas' turnover and blew down the right side of the field with the ball. She was able to use her speed to get around the last defender and send a looping shot just out of reach of the Terriers' keeper.
 
Gordon continued to press—keeping the ball in Thomas' half of the field for a major chunk of the game—and their persistence was rewarded with two more goals before the halftime buzzer. Center-midfield Olivia Balloveras got into the action off of a pass from Midwinter and Breton tallied her second goal of the game in the 14^th minute on a beautiful feed from Lauren Hayes.
 
Both teams shuffled their lineups for the remainder of the half as over 30 minutes went by without another score.
 
Gordon and Thomas switched sides of the field for the start of the second half, but the results were much of the same for the Fighting Scots. Kendra Woudenberg centered a pass 54 seconds into the second period that caromed off of a defender and into the net. She was credited with the fifth goal of the game for Gordon.
 
A few minutes later Claire Brooks connected on a cross from Breton for the team's sixth score. Breton sprinted down the right side of the field with possession and sent a perfect cross into the lap of Brooks, who placed it past Thomas' Kate Thibodeau.
 
After another Woudenberg goal in the 51^st minute to make it a 7-0 game in Gordon's favor, the youngest of members of the team found their first opportunities to strike gold. Freshman Mary Catherine Aston gathered a cleared ball and chipped it over the top of the defense into the webbing of the goal for her first collegiate score.
 
With a minute remaining another freshman, Kara Dry, bent a corner kick past the entire defense without touching anything but the net.
 
Gordon's excellent defense anchored by Julia Miller and Shelby Palafox kept the Terriers from advancing the ball close enough to register a shot on target. The Fighting Scots outshot the Terriers 27-1 by the end of the game.
 
Thibodeau finished with nine saves in the loss for Thomas.
 
Gordon is back in action on Saturday afternoon at 4:30 as they remain in Gorham, Maine to take on host school Southern Maine. The Huskies (1-0) defeated SUNY Maritime 3-0 in the first game of the USM Invitational.