By Cort Reynolds
SPENCERVILLE - The Bluffton girls soccer team opened its Northwest Conference schedule with a convincing 5-1 win at Spencerville Monday evening.

The Lady Pirates improved to 1-2 overall and 1-0 in the NWC with their first win. The Bearcat girls fell to 1-1 and 0-1 with the defeat.

Reagan Mittendorf authored a hat trick to lead the Pirate girls to victory. She opened the scoring in the 10th minute, then added two more scores in the 29th and 49th minutes. 

Teammate Allison Diller then found the back of the net in the 51st and 58th minutes to put the match out of reach.

Spencerville's Raigan Staup scored in the 16th minute to tie the game 1-1. But then Mittendorf tallied 13 minutes later to give Bluffton a 2-1 lead at intermssiion.

The Pirates then outscored the Bearcats 3-0 after intermission.

Clara Matthews, Diller, Mittendorf and Sami Scoles each passed out one assist for the victors.

Bluffton mustered 37 shots, 22 of which were on goal.

Spencerville only got off one shot, which hit the back of the net. Bearcat keeper Sydney LeMar was credited with 17 saves.

Bluffton hosts Van Buren in a non-league match Thursday, September 3.