MARINE Academy Plymouth made an impressive start to their South West Women’s League Premier Division season by beating Torquay United 5-0 away on Sunday.
MAP went into the match at South Devon College on the back of a 21-0 FA Cup victory over Ottery St Mary the week before.
And they continued their hot form to return with three points and take an early lead at the top of the table.
Samantha Drewery, who had bagged six goals the week before in the cup, was again influential, scoring twice.
MAP’s other goals came from Olivia Ramsey, Beth Everson and Eden May.
In the same division, Callington Town opened their campaign with a 2-0 home win over Bideford. Gabi Alphous and Keri-Ann Moxon scored their goals.
In South West Women’s League Western Division, Plymouth Argyle’s development team suffered a narrow 3-2 home defeat to St Austell.
Having found themselves 3-1 down eight minutes into the second half, Argyle’s young side came to life and came close to snatching a draw with a dominant final 30 minutes.
St Austell went ahead in the 28th minute but Argyle hit back straight away with a cracking shot from outside the area by Dee Newman.
But just before the break Saints went 2-1 ahead when Argyle failed to deal with a free-kick into the penalty area.
Early in the second half, Saints went 3-1 ahead, but then the hosts threw everything at their Cornish visitors. They had three really good efforts before Imogen Crawford pulled a goal back with five minutes to go.
The young Pilgrims desperately went looking for an equaliser but it would not come. Char Whitmore (2) and Laura Barrett scored St Austell’s goals.
In the same division, Plympton Ladies did open their season with three points by beating St Agnes 2-0 away.
Plymouth Argyle’s first team do not start their FA Women’s National League Southern Division season until next week. Instead this weekend they played Larkhall Athletic away in a pre-season match and lost 4-1.
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