HOLLY SPRINGS – Holly Springs girls soccer coach David Lanuti said he expected Knightdale to give his team all it could handle given the teams’ recent history against one another. But fortunately for the Golden Hawks, Lanuti was wrong.

Holly Springs led 2-1 at halftime and pulled away in the second half to beat Greater Neuse Conference-foe Knightdale 5-1 at Holly Springs High School on Friday.

“Knightdale always plays us tough,” Lanuti said. “But we were firing on all cylinders. This is a statement about what we’re capable of.”

Junior forward Stephanie Bristol got the Hawks going early with two goals in the first 40 minutes. In the second period, sophomore Rachel Harris took over and scored two goals of her own to push the lead to three.

Senior midfielder Grace Glembocki tacked on an insurance goal late from about 15 yards out.

Holly Springs controlled the ball the entire second half rarely allowing Knightdale to even kick it past midfield much less mount any sort of offensive charge. The Hawks took nine more shots on goal than their counterparts.

“We’ve been focusing on our possession game,” Lanuti said. “It was a good strategy and it was effective for us. And the girls were able to finish. When the girls are finishing we win games.”

Lanuti credited Glembocki – a team captain – with leading the ball handlers and controlling the offensive unit.

“Grace simply took over the middle of the field,” he said.

But as good as his team was on offense Lanuti was most complementary of the defense, which was aided by the return of sophomore defender Julie Fisher from injury.

“We’ve had some injury problems this year,” he said, “but we got some girls back and it helped us. Julie was back and was a big part of our defense.”

The Hawks’ defensive group allowed just four shots on goal and protected senior goalkeeper Kate McDaniel so well she only needed to make two saves all evening.

In the team's 11 games, Holly Springs has given up just 11 goals — a big reason why the team is 8-0 in the Greater Neuse with four conference games left.

“(Junior defender) Katelyn Noel is the rock of our defense,” Lanuti said. “She continues to stuff the other teams’ shooters. She had a great game.”

HSHS (8-2-1, 8-0) will take to the field again on Monday, this time against conference foe Clayton in what'll be the next-to-last home game of the year for the Hawks.