NORTON SHORES – Maybe opponents had better start paying more attention to Mona Shores soccer sniper Lydia Sowles.

She says she sometimes doesn’t draw much defensive coverage, maybe because she’s pretty short and pretty quick and just doesn’t get noticed.

She says she just finds herself with the ball sometimes and lets the shots rip.

“I’m always open on that back side, nobody’s ever on me, so I just turn around and shoot my shot,” said Sowles, who scored two goals, and very nearly a third one, in the Sailors’ impressive 5-0 victory over rival Reeths-Puffer on Thursday in a key O-K Green conference battle.

The victory left Mona Shores with a 4-0-1 overall record, but more importantly a 3-0-1 conference mark. The Sailors are tied for first place with Zeeland West in the O-K Green with three regular season league games remaining, against Muskegon, Wyoming and Holland.

Mona Shores Coach Dylan Darga said Thursday’s win might have been the most complete game his team has played on both ends of the field.

He mentioned a recent game against Zeeland West, when the Sailors played strong defensively, and another against Zeeland East, when they played strong offensively.

“Tonight the girls put it all together, it was nice to see,” Darga said. “A lot of things are finally clicking.”

The Sailors showed off their offensive skills, with Sowles scoring twice and hitting the goal post with another shot late in the game, sophomore Shay Norden also netting two goals, and senior Mia Brown scoring the fifth.

Mona Shores outshot Reeths-Puffer 10-6 in the game.

“They love to score goals,” Darga said about his sharpshooters. “They don’t overly celebrate. They’ve done it before, and hopefully they will continue to do it.”

Mona Shores was also very strong defensively, keeping dangerous Reeths-Puffer scorers like Emma Martin and Sophia Hekkema from finding the net.

Lauren Hylland, Emma Anderson, Mallory Hogston and Ali Phillips were just a few of the Sailors who made strong defensive plays and kept the Rockets from mounting much of an attack.

Sailor goalie Ella Buikema got the shutout, stopping four Reeths-Puffer shots in the first half and two in the second.

“I was a bit nervous, because with Martin and Hekkema they are a tough matchup,” Darga said about the Rockets. “But I think our back line did a great job. Outside of a couple of opportunities they had, we held them in check.”

The Sailors took the lead in the opening minutes when Norden broke up the side of the field toward the R-P goal, outran a defender and launched a shot that got past Rocket goalie Tessa Lamphere.

Sowles added her goals with 26:12 and 5:14 remaining in the first half, and Mona Shores led 3-0 at halftime.

Norden took a centering pass from Brown with 27:15 left in the game and scored from close range, putting the Sailors up 4-0. Brown got a goal of her own with 10:30 remaining.

“It’s one of our biggest rivalry games,” Sowles said about playing Reeths-Puffer. “We came out with a bang and hit them really hard. I think we really wanted this one.”

Reeths-Puffer Coach Kody Harrell credited the Sailors for playing a strong game, but said he was disappointed with his team’s performance.

“Definitely props to them, but that’s the worst we’ve played all year,” said Harrell, whose team is now 4-3 overall and 2-2 in conference play. “They are not five goals better than us. But they capitalized on their opportunities and they were well organized.

“You go against a rival, emotions take over everything in a game like this, they score the first goal, then they’re on that high and we’re on that low.”