By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
After Micah Williams had a 23-goal breakout soccer season as a freshman in 2024, it's no surprise that opposing teams have concentrated their defensive efforts on the Highland Park star this season.
Highland Park sophomore Micah Williams scored seven goals in Tuesday's 8-0 win over KC-Harmon, giving her 36 goals on the season. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
But that game plan hasn't exactly been successful, with Williams scoring at an even more prolific pace this spring, including seven goals in Tuesday's 8-0 Senior Night win over Meadowlark Conference foe Kansas City-Harmon at Hummer Sports Park.
"I feel like coming into the season all the other teams already know of me, so every single team that we've played this year has already adjusted their back line to me,'' Williams said. "They already knew that they had to put double on me, they already knew all that, so I just came in and adjusted back.
"I made sure I could get around them and played to my team and they played back and we could still get past them.''
Williams' seven-goal explosion against the Hawks came on the heels of a six-goal performance a night earlier in a 6-3 Highland Park win over Ottawa.
Williams now has 36 goals on the season for the 5-9-1 Scots and 59 goals in her two high school campaigns.
The Scot star was quick to give her teammates credit for doing everything they can to create scoring opportunities for her.
"We've been practicing it in practice,'' Williams said. "We've been talking about it in games. We've been talking about it before games, in halftimes, after games. We've really been working on it.
"We've been doing through balls and give-and-gos. We've been watching other teams do it on us and we just take it back and do it on them, too.''
Williams is closing in on the goal for 2025 she set before the season.
"Last season I had 23 goals and this season I'm aiming for 40 goals,'' she said.
Williams scored the only goal Highland Park would need against Harmon early in Tuesday's game before Scot freshman Carmiya Ray made it a 2-0 game and Williams added three more goals before halftime as Hi Park opened up a commanding 5-0 advantage.
Williams found the back of the net three more times after the break, scoring with 4:32 remaining to end the game by way of the eight goal spread.
Sophomore Sincere Cooper picked up the shutout in goal for the Scots.
Highland Park soccer honored its four seniors during halftime of Tuesday's 8-0 win over KC-Harmon at Hummer Sports Park. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
At halftime Highland Park recognized seniors Athziry Paredes, Belen Bermudez-Soto, Karla Barron and Layana Taylor.
HIGHLAND PARK 8, KC-HARMON 0
KC-Harmon (2-11-1, 2-9-0) 0 0 -- 0
Highland Park (5-9-1, 4-6-1) 5 3 -- 8
Highland Park -- Goals: Micah Williams 7, Ray. Shutout: Sincere Cooper.
