BATON ROUGE — The LSU soccer team earned its sixth-consecutive shutout victory on Friday, as the Tigers blanked the Alabama A&M Lady Bulldogs, 9-0, here in front of the sixth-largest crowd at the LSU Soccer Complex.
“We came out in the second half and we took care of business,” said LSU head coach George Fotopoulos. “After a disappointing first half, I think that our team did a good job rebounding and I was pleased at seeing that. Alabama A&M makes up whatever they lack in tactical ability with their athleticism. They are a very athletic team.”
At the 26:34 mark in Friday’s non-conference matchup, LSU’s Ashley Mitnick scored the first of two goals on the evening to give the Tigers an early 1-0 lead. On the play, the Tigers’ senior from Lilburn, Ga., gathered a corner kick from Stephanie Keating and sliced a 20-yard kick into the right-hand corner of the net.Mitnick also scored the first goal of the second half against Alabama A&M.
At the 55:25 mark, she lined a 25-yard shot past the Lady Bulldogs’ Jennifer Slaton and recorded the 19th goal of her career. The Tigers’ Rachel Cohen was credited with the first of her two assists on the play.
With the victory, LSU upped its overall record on the season to 8-1 and notched its seventh-straight win. The Tigers also improved to 5-0 at home and stretched its scoreless streak to six games. LSU has not allowed a goal in a school-record 540:50. The Tigers shattered the previous mark of 365 minutes set in 1995.
“I have to give our team a lot of credit for coming out strong in the second half and playing with a lot more intensity,” Fotopoulos said. “We did a lot of good things and we did what we needed to do in order to get a win.”
LSU’s sophomore midfielder Danielle Keath recorded a hat trick on Friday with goals at 41:14, 58:40 and 65:35. The goals were her first of the 2002 campaign and upped her career total to five. She scored twice on one-on-one breakaways before looping a shot just beyond the reach of the goalkeeper for her third score.
“It was the first time that I’ve scored any goals this season,” said Danielle Keath. “I got kind of lucky on my goals today, but I’m happy. I was more composed in the box tonight and didn’t panic like I have before. The first goal really took a lot of pressure off of me. I was so excited.”
Mandy Heintz, the Tigers’ prolific goal scorer from San Antonio, Texas, added two more goals to her Southeastern Conference lead on Friday. The junior notched goals at 36:09 and 63:16 to up her career-high total to 17 on the season.
Coming into the match against Alabama A&M, Heintz was the leading goal scorer in the SEC and third in the nation. Her 17 goals this season moved her into second place on LSU’s all-time scoring list. Heintz trails former Tiger great Jackie Cooper by eight goals. Cooper accumulated a school-record 25 goals during the 1996 season.
LSU outshot the Lady Bulldogs 42-1 on Friday and has outscored its opponents 43-2 this season. The Tigers have not allowed a goal at home this season and have outscored the opposition 38-0 at the LSU Soccer Complex.
The LSU soccer team will next be in action on Friday, Oct. 4, as the Tigers travel to Oxford, Miss., to open up SEC play against the undefeated Ole Miss Rebels at 7 p.m.
LSU (8-1) def. Alabama A&M (2-7), 9-0
AAM 0 0 – 0
LSU 3 6 – 9
Scoring: LSU, A. Mitnick (2) 26:34 (assist Keating), Heintz (16) 36:09 (assist Keating), Keath (1) 41:14 (assist Brown), A. Mitnick (3) 55:25 (assist Cohen), Keath (2) 58:40 (assist T. Mitnick), Heintz (17) 63:16 (assist Cohen), Keath (3) 65:35 (unassisted), Drake (5) 74:23 (assist Heintz), Hadzic (1) 82:12 (assist Marschall).
Yellow Cards: LSU, Agar (1) 52:48.