Heading into Sunday afternoon’s game against Indiana, MSU men’s soccer (8-7-1) player Jay Chapman had yet to receive a collegiate point.
The freshman midfielder hadn’t picked up a goal or an assist throughout his 12 games as a Spartan, and he apparently thought Sunday was the perfect time to put an end to that.
Forty-two minutes into the game, Chapman put away the ball to give MSU its first goal of the game.
Less than 10 minutes later, he did it again.
About 24 minutes after that, he did it one more time.
Chapman’s standout performance led MSU to a 3-1 underdog win against highly ranked Indiana, shooting MSU up in the Big Ten rankings.
“Honestly, I’m super excited,” Chapman said. “At the beginning of the season, I kind of started off a little bit rough. I had a lot more expectations of scoring. I kind of was in a drought a bit. I just hit one from the top of the box today, and it flew in and kind of got me in a rhythm. I’m really excited — excited for the rest of the season.”
His hat trick brought him among the top leading scorers of this season’s team — sophomore forward Adam Montague leads with four, and senior midfielders Domenic Barone and Luke Norman, along with Chapman, have three.
Head coach Damon Rensing said Sunday’s game was the perfect one for Chapman to shine, and he thinks that performance will give Chapman the comfort he’s been looking for.
“I think he picked a good game to score his first, second and third goals of the year,” Rensing said. “The thing with that that’s good is Jay worked as well; he connected the ball for our team and then, obviously, scored. I think that first goal got him going. I think maybe Jay had some high expectations coming in here and maybe that lifted a little monkey off his back and he was comfortable in playing. He was special (on Sunday).”
Chapman also was awarded Big Ten Player of the Week and College Soccer News National Team of the Week honors following that game.
As the end of Norman’s collegiate soccer career begins to draw to a close, he said the talent of the younger players on the team — Chapman included — makes him feel comfortable with the direction the team’s headed.
“We only have three seniors, and the core of the team’s going to come back next year,” Norman said. “I think they’re going to be even better next year. I’m just excited for the program in the future.”
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