When a team out shoots their 28-1, most of the time those teams end up victorious. That’s exactly what the MSU women’s soccer team did in its 3-1 win against Bowling Green on Friday.
The Spartans came out of the gate strong and controlled the pace for much of the first half, and head coach Tom Saxton was glad to see the improvement since last week’s tie against Oakland.
“We were most pleased we came out with some tempo and some intensity after last week’s game against Oakland,” head coach Tom Saxton said. “I was pleased that the whole team came out pretty much ready to go with a sharp tempo and we certainly controlled the play in the first half hour, we probably should’ve gotten a couple more goals out of it.”
The strong opening led to MSU’s first goal in the 15th minute when sophomore forward Allyson Krause lined a slick pass from the right side in to redshirt freshman forward Erica Goodenough. Goodenough immediately knocked it past BGSU goalkeeper Lauren Cadel for her first goal of the season.
MSU was looking to head into halftime with a 1-0 lead, but with less than three minutes left in the half BGSU midfielder/forward got past defenders and launched a hard shot past sophomore goalkeeper Gabrielle Gauruder.
The Spartans rebounded in the second half and scored two goals in the span of about seven minutes.
“Were obviously providing opportunities on our attack,” redshirt freshman midfielder Jessica White said. “It means we have the ability to work on finishing and putting more in the back of the net.”
White found the back of the net for the third time this season when she knocked in a shot from the left side in the 61st minute.
In the 68th minute, Alexandra Gjonaj gave MSU an insurance goal when she knocked a goal off her corner kick.
Senior defender and team captain Kelsey Mullen said the team needs to work on finishing better when they get a large amount of shots. The Spartans only have one non-conference game left before facing Big Ten competition.
“It’s a positive that we’re getting those shots off, we definitely need to continue working on finishing them, but it’s good that we’re getting that many shots off heading into Big Ten,” Mullen said. “We just need to play as a team, work all 90 minutes and not give up. Today we gave up for a (second) and they got a goal off it.”
Gauruder, who made her first career start, got the starting nod with junior goalkeeper Courtney Clem currently out because of injury.
Midway through the first half of last Sunday’s game against New Mexico, Clem was kicked in the face and was forced to leave the game. Junior midfielder/forward Lisa Vogel and junior forward Paige Wester also are out because of injury, but Saxton said all three are making progress and should return soon.
The Spartans now will travel Sunday to Ypsilanti, Mich., to face Eastern Michigan (1-3-1). Despite the record, EMU has taken two ranked teams, Michigan and Ohio State, to overtime.
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