BATON ROUGE — Four members of LSU’s heralded freshman class scored goals to lead the soccer team to a 6-0 shutout of the Sam Houston State Bearkats on Friday at the LSU Soccer Complex and give the Tigers their second shutout in as many matches.
The Tigers, who shutout in-state rival UL-Lafayette by the score of 2-0 on Tuesday, improve to 2-1 on the season and 21-3 all-time versus teams from the Southland Conference. This marks the team’s first meeting with the Bearkats (1-3-0) in its 11-year history.
“It’s not SEC level competition, but they did beat Mississippi State and they are certainly a hard working team from start to finish,” said LSU head coach Brian Lee. “That was on all the scouting reports on them, so it wasn’t as easy as the 6-0 score looks. They should certainly do well in their conference and be competitive the rest of the way.”
Freshman Michelle Makasini picked up right where she left off on Tuesday by scoring her second game-winning goal of the season in the 13th minute of the first half as she punched in a header from six yards out on a corner kick by fellow freshman Katherine Lagow.
Makasini leads the team with five points on the season as she was credited with an assist on freshman Amanda Carreno‘s first career goal in the 43rd minute of play.
Carreno gathered her own rebound and ripped a shot into the back of the net from point-blank range for her first goal of the match. She added a second goal in the 62nd minute after taking a feed from freshman Malorie Rutledge and blasting a shot from 25 yards in front of the net and over the outstretched arms of the Bearkat goalkeeper.
The Tigers put the match out of reach in the second half as Lagow, fellow freshman Rachel Yepez and sophomore Roslyn Jones each scored their first goals of the young season.
Yepez scored right out of the locker room in the 48th minute with an assist from Rutledge, while Lagow took a pass from freshman Kathleen Walsh and chipped the ball over the keeper’s head in the 67th minute for the first score of her young career. Jones punched in a shot from 12 yards out in the 78th minute after taking an end line cross from freshman Brittany Lowe.
LSU dominated on the offensive end for the second consecutive match as it outshot the Bearkats by a wide margin of 35-4, including 16 shots on goal and eight corner kicks. Sam Houston State managed just two shots on goal and one corner kick in the match.
“We played well tonight, especially in the second half,” Lee said. “We weren’t as clean as we wanted to be in the first half in terms of movement off the ball. But it’s really nice to watch when we’re playing well. It’s a rhythmic, exciting style of soccer. We look to continue that on Sunday.”
The Tigers square off against the Houston Cougars for the first time in their history on Sunday in a match scheduled for 1 p.m. at the LSU Soccer Complex. The match has been dubbed the “Student-Athlete Game” as student-athletes from a variety of athletic programs will be in attendance and signing autographs during the first half.