BATON ROUGE — The LSU soccer team ended its 2003 season on Sunday by honoring six seniors on its annual “Senior Day” and earned a 9-0 win over Southern University at the LSU Soccer Complex.
The Tigers finish the season with a 10-9-1 overall record and a 2-7 mark in the Southeastern Conference. LSU recorded its second-straight winning season and third in four years. LSU head coach George Fotopoulos has compiled a 44-28-7 record in his first four seasons at the helm. The 2003 seniors are the first for Fotopoulos, as he took over prior to the 2000 season.
“If you go back and look at our season, we had three one-goal losses in the conference and that is how it works in the conference, because if you turn those into wins then you are in the SEC Tournament and possibly the NCAA Tournament,” said Fotopoulos. “We were very competitive this year and I just think we had some bad breaks, you know we started out with some injuries to two freshmen, Ashleigh Gunning and Michelle De Cespedes, that we never really recovered from,” said Fotopoulos. “Those were two major recruits who kind of fell behind and we had some major injuries throughout the season to some of our key personnel.”
Fittingly, a senior would get the scoring started for LSU on Sunday. Forward Rachel Cohen, a native of Lafayette, would score the first of three goals, as she gave LSU a 1-0 lead just 6:23 into the contest on the assist from junior Artie Brown. Brown would score her team-best 13th goal with just under 33 minutes left in the half on a pass from freshman Stacy Bishop to put the Tigers ahead by two. Sophomore Tara Mitnick, a defender, scored the first goal of her career midway through the half as she fired a shot from near midfield into the net for a 3-0 lead.
Cohen struck again late in the half as she scored an unassisted goal to make it 4-0. Senior Stephanie Keating notched her seventh goal of the season, LSU’s fifth of the first half, becoming one of four seniors to score a goal on Sunday. De Cespedes got into the act just minutes before halftime as she took a pass from Keating and scored her fifth goal of the season to make it 6-0 at the half. LSU tied a single-game record for most goals in a first half with the six the Tigers scored on Sunday.
Senior Laura Klatter scored her first goal of the season at the 59:36 mark of the match, with the assist credited to Cohen, who finished her career as the Tigers’ all-time leader in assists with 22. Cohen scored her third goal at the 62:58 mark to cap her first-career hat trick and second by an LSU player this season. Freshman forward Stacy Bishop scored three goals in a 12-0 win over Jackson State on Aug. 31. Bishop finished the season second on the squad with 12 goals and tied Brown for the team lead in points with 29. Junior Danielle Keath finished off the scoring for LSU with a goal, her second of the season, at the 86:01 mark. The assist went to sophomore Christine Haman.
Southern, in its first year of competition, finished 6-7 on the season and had the NCAA’s leading goal-scorer, forward Ashley Boutte, who recorded the Lady Jaguar’s only two shots-on-goal on Sunday.
“Overall I am very pleased with this game today because obviously Southern is a first-year program but they did have the leading goal scorer in the country and we shut her down, scored goals, and had fun, and we went out with class and that was really important for me for the seniors that we go out with class,” said Fototpoulos. “The way we went out today was the way we should have played the whole season, and that is scoring goals and playing defense, but we are a very young team and we will return just about everybody statistically, and hopefully with a good recruiting class we will be back in the mix again,” said Fotopoulos.
LSU picked up its sixth shutout of the season and out-scored the opposition 53-28. The 53 points are the third-highest total by an LSU team in school history and the 136 points this season are also third-all-time in school history. The Tigers also posted an 8-2 mark at home this season, the second-most wins at home since the 1995 season when the Tigers won nine games.
Seniors Rachel Cohen, Jen deHay, Kasey Dexter, Stephanie Keating, Laura Klatter, and Elizabeth Marschall along with head trainer Stephanie Bell and assistant coach Tracy Hay were all honored in a ceremony on the field following the match. Hay, an assistant on Fotopoulos’ staff since 2000, is leaving LSU to move to Florida and pursue other interests. Her number was retired and she also sang the national anthem.
Box Score
LSU (10-9-1) def. Southern (6-7), 9-0
Scoring: LSU, Rachel Cohen (3), assist: Artie Brown (6:23); Brown (13), assist: Stacy Bishop (11:59); Tara Mitnick (1), unassisted (25:37); Cohen (4), unassisted (26:59); Stephanie Keating (7), unassisted (33:36); Michelle De Cespedes, assist: Keating (43:16); Laura Klatter (1), assist: Cohen (59:36); Cohen (5), assist: Keating (62:58); Danielle Keath (2), assist: Christine Haman (86:01).
Shots: LSU 57, Southern 2
Shots on goal: LSU 21, Southern 2
Saves: Southern 12, LSU 2
Fouls: Southern 11, LSU 4
Corners: LSU 18, Southern 0
Officials: Tim Debysingh (HR), Harlan Matthews (AR), Michelle Tubre (AR2), and Dave Busekist (4th).
Attendance: 479
Time: 1:57