CHESTER — The Independence need to prove they can be a dominant home team.
They had fallen short in their previous two efforts at Widener University’s Leslie Quick Stadium. In three games overall, the Independence recorded only three goals and one win. They were blanked in their previous outing — a draw against the Atlanta Beat.
Beginning a season-long, four-game homestand Saturday night, the Independence blew the fuse of the visiting magicJack. Led by Danesha Adams’ two-goal performance, the Independence rolled to a 6-0 victory and consequently leapfrogged the magicJack for second place in the WPS standings.
The six goals tied a single-game WPS record. The league has been existence for three years.
“Once we got the first two goals, I think we knew we could play with them a little bit and so we kept going at them,” Adams said. “This is huge for us. Last year we struggled on the road, and this year we’re doing well on the road. It’s just a matter of winning these games at home and putting ourselves in a great position to be in the championship game at the end of the year.”
Adams provided the early spark. She beat the last line of the magicJack defense and found a clear lane to the box. Adams set her feet, launched a shot from the right side of the box and beat a sprawling Brett Maron to put Philly ahead, 1-0, in the 13th minute.
“They played with a flat back three against us, which is a bit risky and a bit bold — that’s just my opinion,” coach Paul Riley said. “That’s why we went with a two-pronged attack with Tasha (Kai) and Danesha. I’m not sure if we’ll go against a flat back three every week and it was a dangerous move, especially with their speed. It worked out well for us.”
Adams has three goals in the last two games and is gaining the trust and confidence of the coaching staff.
Adams was recently inserted into the starting lineup to replace forward Amy Rodriquez, who is serving time with the national team, and also had to overcome an injury at the start of the year.
“I had a rough start of the season being injured, but I’ve had the opportunity to get my legs back and get back to being 100 percent,” Adams said. “With A-Rod being gone, now I have the opportunity to show that I’m a good enough player to play in this league.”
The Independence never let up on attack. A Tasha Kai header went off the fingertips of Maron and over the cage. Kai’s aggressiveness resulted in a yellow card in the first half, but she never wavered.
Arguably the fastest player on the team, Kai turned on the engines and made everyone trying to defend her look silly. Maron misread the situation and left Kai with an empty net for her team-leading third goal of the season to put Philly out in front, 2-0. The forward out of Kahuku, Hawaii, presented major problems for the magicJack.
Kai had an angle shot snuffed out by Maron in the opening minutes of the second half. That was the story of the game for the Indys, who controlled possession from the outset. Philly goalkeeper Val Henderson took care of the few shots that came her away.
The magicJack nearly tallied a freak goal off a lucky bounce in the second half when trailing by a pair. The ball clanged off the top of the cage and dribbled in front of Henderson, who had the wherewithal to collapse on top of the ball and thwarted an easy chance for the magicJack to get on the board.
Seconds later, Henderson made her best stab of the night, robbing Marian Daimy of what looked like a sure thing.
“We’ve been creating a lot of chances lately, but not really pulling the trigger,” said Henderson, who stopped four shots. “No one can complain about six goals. We’re not satisfied, but we’re definitely happy with the result.”
Lianne Sanderson came off the bench to register her second goal of the campaign, while Veronica Boquete registered her first late in regulation to make it 5-0.
The sixth and final goal came off the foot of Iceland native Holmfridur Magnusdottir in the 89th minute.
Haverford High product and All-Delco Sinead Farrelly recorded a pair of assists.
Philadelphia’s defense has allowed only eight goals on the season, which is the fewest in the league. The magicJack return to Quick Stadium this Saturday for a makeup game that was originally postponed April 18 due to inclement weather.
“This is a big win for us and it feels good, especially when we play them next week,” Kai said. “This momentum is going to surely take us into next week and we have something to look forward to.”
