RAPID CITY - It may not be the most Christian thing ever devised, but nobody said turning the other cheek was the best way to win sporting events.

The St. Thomas More-Rapid City Christian girls' soccer team has a simple motto this year, one taken from the movie "300" - "Give them nothing, but take from them everything."

And that's exactly what sophomore striker Maria Gonzalez has been doing. The returning second-team Class A all-state selection racked up her third hat trick - three goals in one game - this weekend in a 4-0 win over then No. 1-ranked Harrisburg as More-Christian moved to 6-0 on the season. For that effort, Gonzalez has been named the Rapid City Journal Athlete of the Week.

"We had a lot of people come out," Gonzalez said of the No. 1 versus No. 2 matchup. "It was a pretty big deal."

Gonzalez has been a goal-scoring machine since she first stepped onto the field for the cooperative team consisting of girls from the two private high schools in Rapid City and her coach thinks she probably doesn't have as many as she could have.

"I'm pretty sure that she'd have a few more hat tricks if I left her out there a little longer in some of our games," More-Christian head coach Doug Noyes said. "In fact, I know she would, but sometimes she only gets to play 70-75 minutes. There have definitely been games where she could have scored a few more goals but I took her out."

Gonzalez has played enough to score 13 of her team's 35 goals this season as More-Christian has outscored their opponents by a whopping 33 goals this year (35-2).

Gonzalez, asked what the strength of her game as a soccer player is, doesn't hesitate.

"My team," she said. "If it wasn't the people playing me the ball, Annie (Bloom) off corners, I don't know, just all of us working together getting me the ball or getting someone else the ball is what makes us good."

And they are good. Noyes has coached the team for all six years of its existence - including state championship winners in 2002 and 2003 - and says that this team is as good as any he's had.

"It's always hard to compare, but I'd say that this team is as good as any I've had," Noyes said. "These girls give no quarter and they take none, either. A lot of people complain that, as a Christian team, we don't play like it. But we've got girls that love to compete, like Maria. If a referee is going to permit a little pushing, we're going to do a little pushing, and if they don't, we don't. But we're always going out to play as hard as we can."

Part of Gonzalez's ability and desire to compete comes from growing up in a busy home. She's the youngest of six children, all of whom competed in sports at St. Thomas More.

"My brothers used to beat me up when I was littler," Gonzalez said. "I never really cry about little things or getting hurt."

Noyes sees a definite correlation between his striker's success and her life at home.

"If you look at the Gonzalez family there's not an ounce of quit in the bunch of them," Noyes said. "There's not anything but 110 percent coming out of any of the kids in that family. You look at their GPA's and their sports histories and they've all been successful, so genetics and upbringing are part of it. But part of it is just intrinsic in Maria. She's very dedicated to being the best that she can be."

And that's what she hopes for this season, for all of her teammates and herself.

"We need to win state again," Gonzalez said. "We got beat last year and I don't want it to happen again. I'd also like to make first-team all-state this year."

And that's when it kind of settles in. Maria Gonzalez is ready to take whatever she can this season, in the form of championships, individual awards, goals and games.

Just don't be offended when she gives nothing back.