Valdosta State’s Emily Cooper, left, tries to dribble around Jennifer Starvetsky (5) of Georgia Southwestern Thursday evening during the first-ever VSU soccer game at the VSU Soccer Complex.

Two games, two wins for Valdosta State’s women’s soccer team.

Valdosta State improved to 2-0 in its inaugural soccer season with a 4-1 victory over Queens University on Monday at the VSU Soccer Complex.

The Blazers scored three goals in the final nine minutes, two of them by Blakely McClellan, to break a 1-1 tie and pull away for the victory.

“I’m proud of my players,” Valdosta State head coach Mel Heinz said. “I’m proud they stepped up, and I appreciate everybody that came out to watch us play today.”

Queens tied the score at 1-1 in the 75th minute. While that goal could have deflated the young VSU team, instead it made the Blazers more determined.

“Once they scored, we were ready to go back out there and win. We were not going to lose this game,” McClellan said. “The fact that we were tied and then we could come back and score (three goals), that was just awesome.”

“With young kids, you don’t know if they’re going to break a little bit from that pressure. But they didn’t, because their mind was set at halftime, which was just go and work as hard as you can, and take care of the ball,” Heinz said. “I think (Queens’ goal) dropped their heads for half a second, and then they knew what they had to do.”

Six minutes after Queens tied the score, McClellan got a pass from Rebecca Miller about 30 yards from the goal. Queens goalie Megan Hirschy rushed in and dove to try to stop the ball. But McClellan kicked the ball over Hirschy, who was about 15 yards from the goal, and it rolled into the goal to give VSU a 2-1 lead.

Four minutes later, McClellan scored again. Miller brought the ball up the field and passed it into the middle of the box. McClellan slid, and kicked the ball into the back of the goal to put the Blazers ahead 3-1.

“It was exciting (to score the go-ahead goal). It really was. And then to get another one right after that (was also exciting),” McClellan said. “It was a good feeling to finally score.”

“(Blakely’s) hard-working, intense, a great kid. She has the drive to want to score goals and the passion to want to score goals, and that’s what she did today,” Heinz said.

In the 89th minute, Miller got the ball and unleashed a shot from about 30 yards away. The ball flew just inside the right post and into the goal, making the final score 4-1.

Five goals were scored in Monday’s game, but it took over an hour for either team to get on the scoreboard. Both teams were held scoreless for the first 64 minutes of the game, although both sides had scoring chances.

Finally, in the 65th minute, Valdosta State got its first goal, and it came from an unlikely source. Arielle Sabina’s job is normally to keep the ball out of her team’s goal, not to put the ball in the other team’s goal. But this time, she lined up to take a free kick, and blasted the ball towards the goal. The placement of the shot couldn’t have been much better, because it sailed out of Hirschy’s reach and found its way into the goal, giving VSU a 1-0 lead.

Queens tied the score in the 75th minute. Sami Striano sent a through ball into the box, and Kristen Wright kicked it into the goal to make it 1-1.

But VSU refused to be denied, put three late goals on the scoreboard, and for the second time in two games, walked off the field victorious.

“(In the) second half, they put a lot more effort into their play, and that’s what got them those goals. I was proud of them for that,” Heinz said.

Valdosta State’s soccer team only began practicing three weeks ago. But in two games, the Blazers have already scored 10 goals, and have only allowed one. Eight different VSU players have scored goals.

“I like that we’re putting balls in the back of the net,” Heinz said. “We’ve got to still keep them out of the goal a lot more, and we’ve got to just keep getting better. We’ve got to keep making (fewer) mistakes. We’re still making a lot of mistakes. If we keep making less mistakes and keep playing good soccer, this team’s going to continue stepping forward.”

Valdosta State goalie Olivia Mills made four saves in the win. She now has a 2-0 record and a 0.50 goals against average.

McClellan, who scored 27 goals last season for Tift County High School, now shares the VSU lead with two goals. On Monday, she was playing in front of about 10 members of her extended family.

“I had pretty much all of my family here, including my family from Atlanta. They came down,” she said. “I had about 10 members of my family here. That was cool to have them here seeing the game.”

Valdosta State will travel to Hartsville, S.C. to face Coker on Friday, then will return home to play Montevallo on Sunday.