By Andrew Zuhosky
It took four home matches at Farmer’s National Bank Field, but on Sept. 11, the Youngstown State University soccer team walked away with its initial win at home after a 2-1 win against Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne Mastodons.
In the 12th minute of play, sophomore forward Katie Hackos snapped the team’s three-match scoreless streak with her first career goal to give the Penguins a 1-0 lead, but IPFW junior forward Andie Lazzerini tied the contest up in the 24th minute on a cross from Kallianne Mogler.
Fellow sophomore forward Abby Kenski gave YSU the lead for good in the 30th minute on a cross from Allison Green, making the score 2-1.
YSU (3-4) was led by sophomore midfielder Kyler Lum and Hackos, who combined for eight shots and four shots on goal, with Lum assisting on Hackos’ goal in the 12th minute. Madison Hughes, Kenski, and Macey Riece accounted for two shots apiece, with Kenski and Riece each registering a shot on target.
Forward Rachel Good led IFPW, registering three of the Mastodons’ nine shooting attempts. Lazzerini accounted for two shots, one on target, along with her tying goal in the first half.
YSU outshot IPFW 16-9, but were bested on corner kicks 4-3.
IPFW goalkeeper Haley Lydon played 45 minutes on Friday, registering two saves while allowing two YSU goals. Kiley Dunning played the rest of the match and made two saves.
YSU goalkeeper Elizabeth Balgoyen, who started Friday’s match in place of the injured Katie Montgomery, recorded two saves en route to her first win as goalie this season.
After the win, head coach Will Lemke offered his thoughts on the victory.
“It’s a mixed bag for us,” Lemke said. “We had some opportunities early that we didn’t finish. We’ve got to get better, especially going into conference play. We’ve had a lot of goals disallowed and had some bad breaks early on that we didn’t overcome, so it is nice to get back on track. Hopefully, we can build from that on Sunday and next Friday.”
Lemke took time to discuss YSU’s next opponent, the Findlay University Oilers.
“Their conference has been tough,” he said. “We’ve played some GLIAC [Great Lake Intercollegiate Athletic Conference] teams before. We played Ohio Wesleyan in the preseason. All those teams in that conference are very tough. I know Findlay’s going to be super physical and will want to press the field and try to put numbers around the ball. It’s going to be tough. We have to play our game.”
Lemke updated the status of Katie Montgomery.
“Katie will be still out for a while,” he said. “We were hoping she’d be back by next week, but she’ll probably not be back until the second conference game.”
Kenski praised her teammates after the contest.
“It was a total team effort,” Kenski said. “We’ve lost quite a few games recently. We worked well together as a team and the sideline was really motivational to us. I think that really helped us win this game.”
