By RYAN ARENA

Sports Editor

Riverside scored four goals in the second half on Thursday night to power past Independence 5-1 in a non-district soccer match at Riverside.

Heidi Garcich scored three goals to lead the Lady Rebels (2-1), who dominated the ball in Tiger territory for most of the night.

“We stressed that we wanted to control the ball on their side of the field,” said Riverside coach Stephen Millet. “I felt like we brought more energy to the table than they did.”

After the teams went into the half tied 1-1, Millet and his team changed their plan of attack, and it resulted in the Rebels building a comfortable lead.

“At halftime, coach told us to go out to the sides and pass it to the middle to finish,” said Garcich. “Everybody was on the right page, and we were able to score.”

Said Millet: “We started to get the ball out wider. They were playing us through the middle. We scored three of our goals off crosses, so it was an immediate success.”

Garcich’s first goal of the second half came with 30:55 left in the game. After a pass from Shelby Deslatte, Garcich had a one-on-one shot at Independence goalkeeper April Arceneaux and converted to put her team ahead.

Riverside missed on a pair of clean looks shortly after, but with 22:36 left Garcich struck again, this time after receiving a pass that left her in the open once more. She booted a shot into the low left corner of the net to put the Rebels ahead 3-1.

With 12:10 left, Deslatte scored a goal of her own. And with 9:59 left, Chelsi Cupit found the scoring touch for the final goal of the match.

With a lead well in hand for most of the second half, it left the Riverside defense to protect it. The Rebels allowed Independence very few chances to get back into the game, and limited the Tigers shot attempts, already sparse in the first half, to virtually none in the second.

“We know we have to work together,” said the Rebels’ sweeper, Lauren Falgoust. “We’ve been working on getting the ball out quicker. We’ve been stressing to be aggressive, and tonight we stepped it up.

“It’s something to build on. We want to just keep improving.”