By BRIAN SHOEMAKER

Herald-Whig Sports Writer

Quincy High School's Hayley Womack is one of a handful of Blue Devils that played club soccer in the offseason.

The extra work is paying off.

Womack scored three goals Friday night as Quincy opened the Quincy Tournament with a 5-0 win over Chillicothe IVC at Flinn Stadium.

"A lot of what you're seeing from her is from club," QHS coach Bill Sanders said. "She plays in St. Louis and has learned a ton from that. She's one of the most pure goal scorers we've had since Jennie Nobis."

Many of those lessons are being shown when it counts.

Womack found the open spot 5 yards out to receive a sharp cross from Casidy McClean for her second goal with 27 minutes, 45 seconds left in the first half.

After distancing herself from the defense on a long pass from Katie Runyon, Womack challenged Lady Grey Ghosts keeper Emily Motteler just in front of the net. Motteler dove to the right while Womack danced by to give Quincy the final margin with 23:03 remaining in the second half.

"I like to go in with the goalie, I feel I can get a better shot," said Womack, who has five goals this season. "I use my speed most of the time to do that. I really got a lot of help from my teammates to push the ball up forward upfield."

Solid passing from the Blue Devils, along with hustle plays like one from Kristin Muehlenfeld, made it easy for QHS to get in scoring position.

Quincy attempted just two shots in the opening 10 minutes before Muehlenfeld outran an IVC defender to save a ball headed for the sideline. Although her pass downfield was kicked out of bound by IVC, Quincy capitalized when Katie Cannady made a quick throw-in to Womack.

Racing toward the right corner, Womack took the pass, turned on goal and gave QHS a 1-0 with 25:43 remaining in the first half.

"It's little things like that," Muehlenfeld said. "We've been working that during practice to set up goals and working on getting the ball down to the corner and making the cross."

Above all, the QHS defense rarely allowed IVC to get within 35 yards of the net. The Lady Grey Ghosts recorded just three shots with the Blue Devils' Brittany Senator making two saves.

Muehlenfeld credited the victory to her team's speed and a new defensive system.

"With our new system, we have two sweepers," Muehlenfeld said. "We've had a lot to work on playing zone and we're starting to get the hang of it. We're pretty much stopping everything past midfield so far."

Runyon added her third goal of the season with a minute remaining in the first half, scoring following a free kick on an assist from Jenny Dreasler. The Texas Christian recruit looked to pass more than score in the early minutes, a trend Sanders said to expect from the senior.

"Last weekend, Katie (Runyon) came off and she'd missed a couple of shots she thought she should've scored," Sanders said. "She came off and said, 'I don't care if I score, my goal is to be the team's assist leader for the year.'"

The Blue Devils play twice today, against Moberly at 9 a.m. and against Bloomington at 1 p.m. Those two teams played to a 1-1 tie Friday. Sanders said he expects to see the team's preseason conditioning carry it through the weekend.

"We ran them very hard and harder than we have in previous seasons. Now it's paying off," Sanders said. "Their legs might be a little heavy tomorrow but they'll run through it."

-- sports@whig.com/221-3365