ST. PETER, Minn. – The Gustavus women’s soccer team used three first half goals en route to a shutout over St. Catherine University Saturday afternoon at Gustie Soccer Field to snap a three-game winless streak.
“We put together a solid 90 minutes,” said Head Coach Laura Burnett-Kurie. We kept our heads in a pressure situation and moved the ball really well. We had a lot of different looks at the goal and it was awesome to put three away in the first half.”
Sophie Leininger (Sr., Plymouth, Minn.) put the Gusties on the board first, scoring her second goal of the season at the 28th minute with help from Kylie Lamberty (Jr., Sioux Falls, S.D.).
Ten minutes later, Josie Mazzone (Sr., Rapid City, S.D.) found space and took a nice shot past the Wildcat keeper to notch her second goal of the season, unassisted. Gustavus added another near the end of the first half when a centered ball from Sally Morrow (Jr., St. Peter, Minn.) went off a St. Kate’s defender for an own goal.
“It is great for our leaders to step up,” Burnett-Kurie commented. “I think everyone stepped up today. Because we were so versatile that creates opportunities for some of our big-time players to step up.”It was nice to see Sophie get a goal, and Josie’s was a great individual effort.”
The Black and Gold led 6-2 in shots as they took the 3-0 lead into the intermission. They kept the pressure on in the final 45 minutes as well, outshooting the Wildcats 9-5 and leading 3-1 in corner kick opportunities.
Ashley Becker (Jr., Farmington, Minn.) made two saves in the complete game effort to tally her seventh shutout of the season.
“The biggest thing now is to take it one game at a time. We believe our destiny is still in our own hands as long as we push to get the results we know we can get,” Burnett-Kurie said.
The Gusties, now 8-4-3 overall and 4-3-2 during Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play, next head to Hamline University of Wednesday.