OU soccer scored a season-high two goals in the 2-1 win over Stephen F. Austin during the home opener Sunday evening in Norman. The Sooners improve to 2-1 on season after winning consecutive games during the weekend.

After scoring only one goal in the first two games of the season, the Sooners exploded on offensive during Sunday's victory over SFA, finishing the game with 19 shots taken and two goals on two assists.

Following a disappointing 1-0 road loss to Bedlam rival Oklahoma State during the season opener Aug. 20, the Sooners bounced back to beat Tulsa 1-0 at Hurricane Soccer Complex before downing SFA in the home opener in front of 917 fans at John Crain Field.

Winning both games this weekend was something that coach Nicole Nelson said she was pleased to see.

"Finishing is always an issue, I feel like, early in the season," Nelson said. "We create a lot of goal scoring chances and don't score as many goals as I like. It just takes a few weeks to get in sync with each other and become cohesive on the attack."

The Sooners took the first lead of the game at the 33rd minute mark off of freshman Annalisa Hall's goal, assisted by senior forward Whitney Palmer. The Plano, Texas, native is ranked second on OU's all-time goals scored list with 29 career goals. However, Palmer has yet to score a goal this year.

Shortly after halftime, SFA responded to tie up the game in the 46th minute with an unassisted goal from Kim Kimmel that got past the outstretched hands of sophomore goalkeeper Kelsey Devonshire. The goal was just the second allowed by Devonshire this season.

It didn’t take long for sophomore transfer Caitlin Mooney to respond by scoring the game-winning goal for the Sooners in the 64th minute off of a textbook throw in by sophomore Brianna Turang, who was credited with the assist.

Mooney, a transfer from Maryland, scored a hat trick during the Sooners' exhibition game against Northern Colorado. Sunday's goal was Mooney's first goal during the regular season as a Sooner.

"Hats off to Stephen F. Austin," Nelson said. "Their pressure was very good. We'll take the win tonight but we have a lot to work on this week."

This season, all three of the Sooners’ goals have been scored by underclassmen. Freshmen Samantha Howell and Annalisa Hall have both scored their first career goals during the pair of wins during the weekend.

Howell scored her first career goal and the Sooners' first goal of the season in Friday's matchup against Tulsa, while Hall collected her first career goal against SFA. Mooney's game-winning goal also was her first career goal as a Sooner.

The experienced and talented youth on the team has given Nelson opportunities to try new strategies as she looks for new ways to help the team improve.

Nelson tweaked the starting line-up in Sunday's game, starting three freshmen for the first time in their careers. Zoe Dickson, Kathryn Watson and Samantha Howell all collected their first career starts due to a lack of energy on the team.

"The reason why I started them is because they're playing well," Nelson said. "We have not been starting games well, so I went with starting them to see how it shifted our energy to start out with. I think they did a good job."

Dickson is a freshman midfielder/defender out of Orange, Calif., where she was a four-year starter at Modena High School and named the team's offensive and defensive player of the year in 2009. Her older sister, Tiana, also plays in the midfielder/defender position for the Sooners.

Watson, a midfielder/defender out of Richardson, Texas, won back-to-back state championships at her high school in 2009 and 2010 before arriving in Norman. In addition to being senior captain for her high school, Watson was also a four-year captain of her club team, the Dallas Sting '92.

"Kathryn is a talented athlete that has played at a very high level on the club scene," Nelson said. "I think her potential at this level is going to surprise a lot of people."

The Sooners get a short break from Friday night games before returning to action at 1 p.m. Sept. 5 in Norman against Colorado College.