BOULDER – While Marty Puketapu (pronounced poo-kee-TOP-oo) was likely unknown to most college soccer fans going into this past weekend, she earned her spot in the soccer record books overnight. To be exact, 21 minutes and 44 seconds.
That was how long it took the freshman from Auckland, New Zealand, to score three goals and an assist in Sunday's 6-0 win over UC Riverside. It was the earliest a CU player has recorded a hat trick in school history, the second hat trick ever by a CU freshman, and the fifth overall hat trick. Her seven points in the first half broke the record for most points in a half as well.
While the feat was a surprise for some, considering she had not scored in the first three matches of the season, it was not a surprise to anyone around Colorado's soccer program. Puketapu, a 19-year-old freshman (she turns 20 in September), enrolled at CU in the spring and scored three goals in five spring matches.
She is also a member of New Zealand's full women's national team and has scored 26 goals in international competition between her home country's U-17, U-18 and U-20 national teams. In 2016 with her club team in Auckland, she netted a league-high 27 goals in just 18 matches, leading Three Kings United to a league championship. This past spring, she saw action in three matches with New Zealand's national team at the Cypress Cup.
Life In New Zealand
Coming to Boulder from Auckland is a long way to travel for anyone, let alone a 19-year-old. Her hometown is a city of 1.5 million people on the west coast of the north island of New Zealand. It has a little bit of everything: beaches, busy city, farmland, and mountains—all right there in one city. Auckland has a laid-back vibe and a small-town feel.
"Back home, you see people walking down the supermarkets in bare feet," Puketapu said. "It's just a real chill culture. Everyone knows everyone back at home. Just [Tuesday], a lacrosse player was like, 'I know this is a complete longshot; I don't expect you to know, but do you know this guy from New Zealand?' I was like, 'yeah! He lives like 10 minutes away from me; he's actually my friend.' It's such a small, small country."
Soccer has been a part of her life for some time and she has developed into one of the top players in her home country. She has played in several FIFA World Cups with youth national teams and has competed in Australia, Fiji, Argentina, Costa Rica, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Canada, the United States, Japan and Switzerland.
But finding top-level competition in a country of less than five million people can be difficult. As a result, she and her national team teammates routinely play against men.
"We train pretty much every day and play games against the guys because the quality of competition is so much better," Puketapu said. "There's much more depth here [in the U.S.], players-wise. The depth in New Zealand isn't as big, but the training environment that I'm surrounded by has really good quality. We just don't get the competition that you get in the States here."
After debating on whether to pursue college soccer, she made the decision after talking with some of her teammates that were doing the same thing and has been impressed with the quality of soccer in America.
Finding Colorado
Once she made the decision to go abroad for college, choosing Colorado was a quick decision after researching the school. But her recruiting process was a bit different than a typical prospective student-athlete; she had to recruit herself. She made her first recruiting visit to CU and was committed to the Buffs almost instantly after stepping on campus.
"I decided I wanted to come [to the U.S.] and since New Zealand is so far away, scouts don't really come over to us so I put together a video and set it out to universities I was interested in. I didn't know too much about the universities or college soccer. I was really keen on Colorado and kept following them up on it. There was something about Colorado that even though I hadn't been here, watching all of their highlights and following their stats and players and success, I knew that Colorado was definitely one of my top choices. I organized official visits and Colorado was my first choice. It was good and bad that I came here first because I knew I wanted to go here right away. Sorry to the other colleges I was about to go visit, but I had my mind set on Colorado."
Sanchez said there was almost no room on the roster for Puketapu, but was glad when a spot opened up.
"We knew that she was a great player and we'd love to have her on the team, but at the end of the day, you can't have everybody," Sanchez said of his roster. "It was kind of a perfect storm in that a spot opened up and it was around the time that she was looking to visit."
After enrolling at CU in January and choosing to major in psychology, Puketapu went on to an outstanding first semester on the soccer field. In five spring matches, she scored three goals, tying with Taylor Kornieck for the team lead in scoring. That extra semester of experience gave her confidence heading into the fall.
"Having a semester under her belt in the spring and scoring a few good goals, I'm sure it gave her confidence going into the season," Sanchez said. "But obviously there's a big difference between the spring and the fall. I think it prepared her more for the challenge of coming into the fall, especially as an attacking player as a freshman, so I think it really did help her."
But it was a clean slate to start the fall season two weeks ago and with all of the success she has had internationally and in the spring, Puketapu was a bit frustrated after going scoreless in the first three matches of CU's fall season.
"I was getting quite harsh on myself because I am a striker and I should be scoring goals, but the goals weren't coming and it wasn't going my way," Puketapu said. "I was getting really frustrated. I think I took it the better way. I could have been down on myself going into that game, like, 'oh it's not going to happen again.' But I flipped it and was like, 'ok today I'm going to pick it up and get some goals.'"
Her positive mindset led her to one of the best performances in CU history, one that caught the eye of former Buff and former United States Women's National Team player Nikki Marshall, who held the previous record for earliest hat trick. Puketapu received a text message on Tuesday from Marshall saying, "Hey Marty. This is Nikki Marshall. I just wanted to say congratulations on breaking my records. I am so excited for you and the Buffs this year. You are going to have a phenomenal career and do a ton for the program. Keep breaking records girl!"
Puketapu's surprise text message from
Nikki Marshall on Tuesday.
Puketapu is off to a great start at CU, but is nowhere near her potential. With a deep roster at Colorado, her goal this season is to stay in the starting lineup. She says she needs to keep working on finishing and creating her scoring chances because that's what strikers do.
"I think I'm a very physical player and I use that to my advantage quite a bit," Puketapu said. "I'm a goal scorer, but I think I need to create more chances for myself and score those goals every opportunity that I get, slotting it in the back of the net because that's my job. I need to be more dangerous in that part."
Sanchez also believes she could do great things as a Buff and beyond.
"I think if she keeps the proper mindset and continues to work hard, she can be a very good player for us," Sanchez said. "She has international aspirations and we want players that want to play at the next level, so she'll have those opportunities as well. But she also knows there's a lot of competition, short-term and long-term. I think she's up for the challenge.
"She has a tremendous work rate. She works well in the 18-yard box; she's a pure striker in the sense that she's good around the box and she has a good feel for the game. She has good experience playing at a high level against good competition so that can only help her. She obviously still has a ton of room for improvement, and she'd say the same thing, but she works hard every day at training, she brings a professional attitude, and if you do that, usually good things happen."
Sanchez will be happy if Puketapu's career is anywhere near what Marshall's was. Marshall still holds six CU career records, five single-season records and three single-game records, and went on to a very successful five-year professional career. She was the only player to start every match for Portland Thorns FC in the first two seasons of the NWSL. And, of course, Marshall also had a brief stint with the USWNT in 2014 before suffering an injury.
This Weekend
Puketapu and her Colorado teammates will play two matches in Boulder this weekend. They will host CSUN at 1 p.m. on Saturday at Prentup Field and BYU at 1 p.m. on Monday.
CSUN is currently 2-0-2 this season and conceded just nine goals all of last season, making Puketapu and her scoring ability a key in that match. This season that Matadors have surrendered three goals in four matches. They have also scored six times, led by junior Marissa Favela with three.
BYU was a top-10 team to open the season, but a very tough schedule has the Cougars sitting at 0-1-2 through three matches this season and just outside of the top 25. They opened the season with a 3-1 setback at Penn State, which is now ranked No. 4 in the nation. Then BYU settled for a pair of draws with Ohio State and Cal State Fullerton, both still undefeated. The Cougars had two All-Americans last fall, including Taylor Isom, who returns as a senior defender. They graduated Ashley Hatch, who was a first-team All-American after scoring 19 goals with six assists. She was the No. 2 overall selection in the NWSL Draft.
