Junior defender Samantha Cook, right celebrates with members of the Michigan State Spartans after Lauren Hill scored a goal during the first half of their soccer game against the Detroit Titans at Old College Field, Tuesday. The Spartans won with a final score of 3-1.
DeMartin Stadium at Old College Field has been in existence for less than two years, but the No. 11 MSU women’s soccer team already has made history there.
Senior forward Lauren Hill broke a tie in the final minute of the first half and the Spartans beat Detroit Mercy 3-1 Tuesday to break the program’s consecutive home unbeaten streak.
“It’s all about the players and they take a great deal of pride in that record,” MSU head coach Tom Saxton said. “We did talk about in terms of how this is a milestone game between that and it being our last home nonconference game before the Big Ten (season) starts.”
The win against the Titans was the team’s 16th consecutive home match without a loss. All 16 games in the current streak have come at DeMartin Stadium, which opened in 2008. The Spartans have posted an overall record of 14-0-2 there.
The Spartans (5-0-1) controlled the pace of play during much of the first half against the Titans (2-3-1) before junior midfielder Kelsey Tait scored the game’s first goal.
In the 16th minute, sophomore midfielder Hannah Peterson passed the ball to Tait before Titans’ goalkeeper Joanna Hinde came out at Tait, but the junior knocked it past Hinde for the goal.
“I was asking (one of my teammates) about it. It was a blur,” Tait said of the goal. “Petey played a great ball in, and one of our team goals is to get people in the box.”
Detroit Mercy answered back in the 36th minute on a goal by forward Nina Carter, who took a long pass on the right side and kicked it past sophomore goalkeeper Jill Flietstra — just the second goal given up by the Spartans this season.
With less than a minute remaining in the first half, MSU’s leading goal scorer broke the tie. Off a corner kick, an errant header caromed off the cross bar but went straight to Hill, who headed it past Hinde with 39 seconds remaining for her eighth goal of the season.
“It’s always been a goal of ours to have courage and corner kicks and restarts and that was a corner kick that Sam had her head on it, credit to her,” said Hill, who has scored in each of the Spartans’ six games this season.
The Spartans added to their lead in the 74th minute when freshman forward Olivia Stander scored her first career goal.
Overall, the Spartans outshot Detroit Mercy 19-2.
Saxton, who was concerned about his team’s offensive attack heading into the game, said the Spartans played better in that area on Tuesday but still have room to improve before this weekend’s games against Eastern and Kent State.
“It will be a very difficult road trip for us,” said Saxton, adding that Eastern just moved into the Top 10 in the region. “Kent State plays in a little tiny field and they built their team around that. They’re tall, they’re physical, they pressure all the time — they’re not pretty, but they’re going to make it real tough on us.”
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