Junior forward Lauren Hill and Penn State defense Jackie Hakes fight over the ball during the second half of Sunday’s game at DeMartin Stadium at Old College Field. Lauren Hill made two assists during the game. The Spartans beat the Nittany Lions 3-1.
It’s difficult to defeat an unbeaten team in the conference when the ball is hardly ever in your possession.
And for the MSU women’s soccer team, the lack of ball control and pressure in Penn State’s zone made the Spartans look as if they wouldn’t have enough in the tank to power past the Nittany Lions.
But the Green and White found ways to capitalize off Penn State’s slipups — sending the slow-paced game into overdrive as they defeated the first-place Nittany Lions 3-1 Sunday afternoon at DeMartin Stadium at Old College Field.
“That’s what all Big Ten games are about, capitalizing off mistakes,” MSU head coach Tom Saxton said. “Late in the game, we made some mistakes and Penn State didn’t capitalize, knocking a few over the top and on the day, that makes a difference.”
The win is MSU’s (12-3 overall, 4-2 Big Ten) first against Penn State (9-6, 4-1) since 1995, being on the losing end for 12 consecutive seasons while posting a 3-13 all-time record against them.
Junior midfielder Lauren Sinacola took advantage of Penn State’s first mistake when goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher came too far out of net allowing Sinacola to sail a lofty 45-foot shot over the retreating Naeher in the 35th minute, giving the Spartans a 1-0 lead with help from the freshman forward Laura Heyboer’s assist.
But Penn State silenced the DeMartin Stadium noise 28 seconds later.
Zoe Bouchelle laced a shot from the top center of the 18-yard box just under the crossbar, barely tipping off the outreached hand of Spartans goalkeeper Lindsey Wrege before settling into the net to tie the game at one.
Then Heyboer got in on the scoring action with 4:53 to play in the half, netting her 16th goal of the season on a crisp pass from freshman midfielder Hannah Peterson set up by a hustling junior forward Lauren Hill to make the entire play happen by shaking off defenders and darting a pass to Peterson. Heyboer backed Naeher up onto the goal line and slipped it past her into the back left corner of the net to retake the lead.
And in the second half, freshman forward Sarah Stern wasted no time showing off her speed and desire to score her first collegiate goal, dribbling up the right sideline before putting a boot into a shot that hit nothing but net. Hill picked up the lone assist on the goal.
“The feeling is so awesome,” Stern said. “I have been working and waiting for one and I got it today. It was an awesome pass from (Hill).”
Penn State began to get physical in the second half, picking up three yellow cards.
With just more than 30 minutes to play, freshman defender Katelin Chaklos saved a potential momentum shifter as a ball beat Wrege but was cleared by the youngster to keep the contest a two-goal game.
“I told her, ‘Thanks,’” Wrege said with a smile. “They’re all great back there and I have been especially working on coming out more. We worked on that in practice. It obviously works. If I make a mistake, they’ll cover me.”
Even in the closing stages of the game, it was all Penn State, firing shot after shot to try and battle back into it, finding great opportunities.
But only opportunities — no goals.
“All I was thinking to myself was, ‘Don’t let the ball in,’” Wrege said. “I leave a lot of it up to my field players, I have 10 people ahead of me that keep the ball out.”
DeMartin Stadium went dead silent as Heyboer went down hard with 6:18 to play when Nittany Lions’ Maura Ryan plowed the freshman on a scoring opportunity as she held her leg in pain.
Heyboer slowly pulled herself up as she and her team continued to battle on the defensive end, clearing ball after ball until time ran out as fans pounded the bleachers for the final 45 seconds.
“Intentionally, for the last 20 minutes, we wanted to stay back defensively and not open ourselves up too much,” Saxton said. “We did a little bit, but we had some good fortune.”
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The Spartans hit the road for three away games against Northwestern (Oct. 17), Wisconsin (Oct. 19) and Indiana (Oct. 24) before returning home to face South Dakota State on Oct. 26 at DeMartin Stadium.
