“She shoots, she scores!”
While the announcer didn’t actually say that, it was a fact that happened over and over in their last home game of the season. Six times in fact. The Corban women’s soccer team was victorious again on Monday, Oct. 24, over Trinity Lutheran College, with a final score of 6-2.
The game started with Trinity in possession. However, that didn’t last for very long. Emily Tsugawa scored in the sixth minute of the match, off of an assist by Rileigh Mankin.
Trinity Lutheran tried bouncing back in the eighth minute with a shot on goal that was saved by goalkeeper Alexis Beattie. Beattie hit it away to a waiting Eagle, who took another shot, only to have it bounce off the crossbar and sail out of bounds.
Quick on the turn-around, the Warriors brought it back up the field. Brittany Bowman fed it to Audrey Sullivan who in turn scored. Once again, Trinity rebounded, and this time Kayla Kliphardt connected with the net, scoring the Eagles first goal of the game.
Coach Marty Ziesemer subbed in Abigail Van Hoogen, who immediately capitalized by scoring in the 33rd minute. With three minutes left in the half, Alex Chick scored for the Eagles, which ended up being Trinity’s last goal of the game. That wasn’t the end though; Van Hoogen shot on goal, trying to chip the Eagles keeper, who managed to get a hand on the ball, trying to push it over her head. Instead, it flipped over her and rolled in with 1 second left in the half.
Coming right back into the game, Bowman had a shot on goal, and Beattie had two blocks, one of which was from a penalty kick. The second half was filled with back and forth action until the 63rd minute, when Bowman brought the ball up the sideline and passed to Tsugawa, who shot and scored. After bringing it back to the center, the duo did the exact same thing, with Bowman getting her third assist and Tsugawa scoring her third goal, the first time in her college career.
“It was great to have my first hat trick on my birthday,” said Tsugawa after the game. “My teammates made it easy.” At the game’s end, Beattie had four saves and Sullivan had four shots with one goal, making for a total of 19 shots.
As the last home game of the season, it was Senior Recognition Day, honoring the three seniors that played in their last regular season home game. At half time, Amanda Mendenhall, Rachel Cole and Brittany Bowman were honored with flowers from their families.
Ziesemer was pleased with the game. “The seniors put on a great offensive show for their last home game. In the second half, the team settled down, played great defense, and didn’t give them anything easy.”
The Corban Warriors are now at 10-6 on the season.