WOOSTER — Wooster put together its best game to date and it couldn't have come at a better time as it squared off with a rising West Holmes team.

In a big early season Ohio Cardinal Conference girls soccer matchup, the Generals put it together at both ends of the pitch and then rode standout Christie Fransen's four goal and one assist night to a 6-1 win.

"It's so great, because we are a team full of freshmen and young people and we definitely needed this," said Fransen. "Everybody played so well, from our defense coming together and our midfielders playing well off each other. It was a true team win that we definitely needed and now that we know what that looks like we can continue that in the future."

Deadlocked in a nil-nil game about 30 minutes in, Fransen who had seemingly found every part of the frame but the nylon, finally did. Taking the ball from her own 45-yard line, she dug her cleat into the turf, wheeled 180 degrees and raced up the left sideline. She split a pair of defenders, cut to the center of the pitch and as she approached from the left side of the box, tapped in a shot from 10 yards out for the score.

"Any time I have the ball, the first thought in my head is that I want to score. If there is any way I can do that I am going to do that," said Fransen. "My goal is to get there, and I know the only way to do that is to go at people with speed, cut against their momentum and as long as I do that, I will get there and will tap it in."

Turns out, she was just getting started, even after seeing a few good chances go unrewarded early.

"In the beginning, I got a lot of shots off, but I was hitting the bar, missing a little bit or shooting it right to the keeper," said Fransen. "It was definitely grueling. It was a process, and it was difficult to go through. Coming into the second half, I knew that we needed to win, I definitely wanted to score goals and they came with patience and effort."

In the second half, the home faithful got treated to more Fransen moments as she scored three more times. Twice she went up the left wing and sank a shot in the opposite side of the frame and for her third, she took a loose ball at midfield, raced up the center and dropped it inside the left post.

"I didn't drink enough water, was light-headed ... it was definitely mental toughness that I was lacking," said Fransen when asked what the difference was. "In the second half, I just decided that I drank enough fluids, now I needed to do this for my team. We are all putting in the effort, so I need to be there, and it really turned on when I believed in that."

On other side of the pitch, Knights coach Schuyler Snyder couldn't have agreed more.

"Fransen is a great player. She has speed, foot skills and unfortunately, we just couldn't hang with her tonight," she said. "She is a magnet out there. She finds the ball, distributes it well and when she has the ball, she can do what she wants with it. Honestly, she is just a great player."

The other big key for the Generals was the play of its defense that was assigned with slowing down a explosive West Holmes attack led by Allie McMillen. They proved to be up for the task as they were able bend but not break early and then helped the Wooster offense build out of the back and get into transition quickly.

"In the past games we weren't playing as well off each other. We are young and didn't know each other as well," said Fransen. "This game we really worked well off each other. We knew that we had to step, we had to move our feet, had to cover for each other and because of those moments, we won the ball back faster than we had in past games. Due to that, Abi (Strand-Fox) and I were both able to get the ball more which created more opportunities and that ended up in more goals."

Rounding out the scoring for the Generals was a Strand-Fox goal to open the second half off an assist from Fransen. Then with 6:53 left in the game, Shelby Lance rifled in a corner kick that rattled off a few players before dropping into the box.

"Our young team grew up a lot tonight and I am incredibly proud of them," said Wooster coach Charles Cerniglia. "West Holmes is a good team and Schuyler's done a great job with that program and her girls always play hard."

The Knights had their moments and a few chances to dent the scoreboard throughout the game, and for the first 50 minutes had Wooster within striking distance. Pushing the ball behind some great combination plays up the wings, they looked to stretch the Generals defense out and at times created some dangerous looks and opportunities.

"We started out strong, the girls came in with a lot of excitement and energy," said Snyder. "We had a lot of really good things to pull from that first half.

"We had some great combinations up the sidelines, with Keira Freewalt, Averee Troyer, Aveona Yoder and McMillen. If they can recognize it in tough matches like this and if we can do that in transition in other games, we will be good."

Even at the end, West Holmes put a pair of point-blank shots that Wooster's goalkeeper Grace Kostorhyz (five saves) snared. It also created the Knights' only score of the night as they got into the box and drew a handball to set up a penalty kick with 11 seconds remaining and Troyer cashed in.

"This team is doing things that we have not seen a team at West Holmes do in a long time," said Snyder afterwards. "It's a credit to these girls. The score was more lopsided than we would have liked, but there were still a lot of good positive things to pull away from this."