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Heyboer's Second-Half Hat Trick Lifts Spartans to 5-1 Win Over Ohio State
Oct. 10, 2008
EAST LANSING, Mich. - After registering eight shots but no goals in the first half, the Michigan State women's soccer team broke loose in the second half Friday afternoon against Ohio State, scoring five unanswered second-half goals en route to a 5-1 victory. Laura Heyboer scored the Spartans' first three goals for her second hat trick of the season. Heyboer now has 15 goals and 37 points this season. The teams wasted no time generating scoring chances early on, as the Spartans nearly struck first when a great ball from freshman Katelin Chaklos in the eighth minute resulted in a header by fellow freshman Sarah Stern. Buckeye goalkeeper Lauren Robertson, however, made the save. Four consecutive OSU corner kicks in a two-minute span early in the first resulted in several good scoring chances, but no goals. After another Spartan scoring chance by Sarah Stern, OSU was first to find the back of the net as Taylor Moront scored off a counter attack to make it 1-0 in the 27th minute. MSU head coach Tom Saxton said that challenging the team at halftime was just what they needed to come out swinging in the second half. "We gave up that early goal and I think our confidence started to wane a little bit," he said. "At halftime, we challenged them on the psychology of the game. We said, `you're a good team, get out there.'"
Again the Spartans came out pressuring the Buckeyes in the beginning of the second. Just minutes into the half, a nice give-and-go between Heyboer and junior Lauren Hill set up a quality chance but OSU's Robertson foiled the attempt by sliding and stealing the ball before Hill could get a shot. MSU's pressure finally paid off on its 11th shot of the game when Heyboer took a pass from Megan Brown in the middle of the penalty area and fired a shot past Robertson to tie the game at one at the 49:22 mark. Heyboer then struck again in the 64th minute, taking a long feed from Chaklos and beating the lone defender and goalkeeper to give MSU a lead it would never relinquish. Heyboer scored her third of the day just over three minutes later, off a pass from Kelsey Tait, to give the Spartans a 3-1 lead. The Spartans' Hill then got into the action, scoring twice in a 13-minute span to stretch the lead to 5-1. Hill's two goals give her 11 for the season. The win moves the Spartans to 11-3 and 3-2 in Big Ten play, while Ohio State drops to 6-5-2 and 3-1 in the conference. Michigan State will host perennial Big Ten power Penn State (9-5) on Sunday at 12 p.m. at DeMartin Stadium. |
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