Hornets Improve to 2-1-0 for the Season With a 5-1 Victory Over North Park Univ.
September 9, 2006
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Hornets Improve to 2-1-0 for the Season With a 5-1 Victory Over North Park Univ. September 9, 2006 |
The Kalamazoo College women's soccer team earned an impressive 5-1 win over the visiting North Park University (IL) Vikings on Saturday 9/9 in front of a large crowd on "2006 Summer Camp Reunion Day". Numerous youth soccer campers from this past summer cheered for the Hornets from the stands, providing the spark which led to eight different Hornet players being involved in the team's scoring display.
Wet conditions typified the early stages of the contest, as a heavy rain had just blown through during pre-game warm-up. After a sloppy first 20 minutes or so (both field conditions and style of play), Kalamazoo finally settled down and began playing a more possession-oriented game before opening the scoring in the 28th minute. It was then that freshman midfielder Paige Howell used her speed to beat a Viking defender down the left flank, served a great flighted ball toward the 6-yard-box, and connected with freshman midfielder Katie Manstrom who headed the ball into the goal to put the Hornets up 1-0. Just over 1 minute later, Kalamazoo capitalized on a corner kick by sophomore midfielder Kelly Lepper to score again. The ball was deflected around inside the Viking penalty area before falling at the feet of freshman midfielder Kristen Jost, who then redirected the ball toward the top of the box for senior forward Lizzy Hauslein. Hauslein hit a confident left-footed shot over the North Park goalkeeper, and Kalamazoo took a 2-0 lead into halftime.
At the halftime break, the Hornets made a commitment to play the second half with the mindset that the score was still 0-0 in order to earn another goal and put the game out of reach. They wasted no time, either, as senior midfielder Macy Lepper scored the game's third goal just 41 seconds into the second half. She beat her defender on the right flank and launched a long, high shot that North Park's goalkeeper had trouble dealing with, as it eventually fell past her feet into the goal. The Hornets spread their final two goals out over the next 20+ minutes. First, Howell scored her own goal in the 58th minute--almost a carbon copy of Lepper's goal, but from the opposite side of the field and assisted by sophomore defender Stephanie Jones. Then, in the 69th minute, freshman forward Jaime Franks received a pass from Kelly Lepper, beat two defenders on her way into the 18-yard-box, and hit a low, driven shot that beat the goalkeeper low to the left. North Park got on the board with a goal of its own in the 72nd minute, when a Hornet defender committed a late foul against a Viking attacker just outside the Hornet 18-yard-box. Asleep at the wheel, Kalamazoo was still busy setting a flimsy wall when North Park's Amanda Wallden hit a low, driven shot just to the left of the wall and into the back left corner of the Hornet goal. The game ended 18 minutes later with the final score at 5-1 in Kalamazoo's favor. Hornet goalkeeper Kassie Johnston recorded 4 saves for the day, while Viking keeper Sarah Primozic was credited with 6 saves.
The Hornets will face up next against Aquinas College (MI) in Grand Rapids, Michigan on Tuesday 9/12 (4:00pm). Kalamazoo comes into the game with a 2-1-0 record, and will look to extend its recent winning streak to 3 games.