City entered yesterday's girls soccer game at Western with an unbeaten league record, including a lopsided victory over a team that defeated the Doves.

But Western had one thing the Knights didn't: Star power.

Star Tazwell set up Tiffany Brown's opening goal midway through the first half and then, in the second half, scored twice herself, giving Western a 3-1, Baltimore City League victory.

The 5-foot-6 sophomore, who has played since she was 4, used speed and skill to expose weaknesses in the Knights' defense as casually as she cracked a bright grin after her second goal.

Tazwell bounced a subsequent shot off the near post, after which she told a teammate, "I should have had four or five goals. I'm upset."

Tazwell's first goal, for a 2-0 lead nine minutes into the second half, came after she dribbled from midfield past four defenders and beat goalkeeper Whitney James (eight saves) to the right corner from 15 yards.

For her second goal, Jones chest-trapped the rebound of a blocked shot and ripped another ground-skimming left-footer to the net's near left-side.

"I can't wait until school tomorrow," she said. "I want to hear them say my name on the announcements."

Western (2-1 overall and league) was coming off a 1-0 loss to Poly, which City (2-2, 2-1) hammered, 5-1. The Knights had scored 13 goals in two league wins but were contained by defenders Krystle Wartman, Keyonna Leggs, Kyra L-Thompson and Christine Smith and keeper Ebony Dennis (nine saves).

"We had a lot of intensity and focus for this game, and it wasn't like that for Poly," Wartman said. "It's about how much you want it, and we wanted this one bad."

Still, a defensive miscue allowed Danyelle Brown, City's second-leading scorer behind Courtney Eley, to race in on a ball that slipped past Dennis and touch it into an empty net to make it 2-1 with 25 minutes left.

But seven minutes later, the Knights were Star-gazing again.

"Against Poly, we were more of a team. Today, we weren't a unit," said Danyelle Brown. "We were pushing the ball into the center ... and they were able to mark out our main scorer. We played like we thought we were going to win, regardless."