BATON ROUGE — Sophomore Melissa Clarke and freshman Michelle Makasini each scored two goals while Clarke added two assists to lead the LSU soccer team to its third straight victory with a 6-1 rout of the Houston Cougars on Sunday at the LSU Soccer Complex.
The Tigers improve to 3-1 on the young season and have scored at least six goals in back-to-back matches for the first time since the 2003 season as they shut out Sam Houston State by the score of 6-0 on Friday.
“It was a great game by our kids after the first 10 minutes,” said LSU head coach Brian Lee. “It really was a great 80 minutes of tremendous, attacking soccer. It’s an exciting style of soccer to play and exciting to watch. Houston is not at all a bad team. They’re a solid team and should be competitive for the rest of the year. We’re just scratching the surface of what we can do.”
Houston (2-2) drew first blood in the ninth minute when forward Stephanie Masci took a feed from defender Brenna Welch and chipped a ball over the head of LSU goalkeeper Jackie Moseley from the top of the box.
But that was all the Cougars could muster as Moseley faced just six shots the rest of the way and only needed to make one save to earn her 11th career win in an LSU uniform.
Clarke tied the score at the 22:06 mark of the first half as she gathered a cross from freshman Malorie Rutledge in the left side of the box and ripped a shot inside the left post for her first goal of the season. She added a second goal in the 48th minute as she took a feed from freshman Amanda Carreno and chipped the ball in the back of the net from point-blank range.
The All-SEC performer from a year ago finished with her first multi-goal game as an LSU Tiger and a career high six points in the match. Clarke is the Tigers’ second leading scorer on the season with a total of seven points.
“It feels good to score a couple of goals, but I’m just glad I was able to help my team win,” Clarke said. “That’s something I didn’t do as much last year (score goals). We played really well today and we just keep getting better and better as a team every day. It’s a lot of fun to play with these girls.”
Sophomore Roslyn Jones scored the game-winning tally for the Tigers at the 33:18 mark of the first half as she ripped a header past the keeper from 12 yards out on an end line cross from Clarke for her second goal of the season. The Tigers carried a 2-1 lead into the locker room as they outshot the Cougars, 14-4, in the first half.
“We came out a little sluggish to start the game, but we played really well the last 30 minutes or so of the first half and finished with a couple of great goals,” Lee said. “Melissa continues to show what kind of player she is whether its scoring goals or getting her teammates involved, and Roslyn has worked so hard since the end of last year and its paying off for her in a big way.”
Makasini scored the first of her two goals at the 57:20 mark of the second half with a shot from six yards in front of the net and added her second in the 84th minute with a shot inside the far post from 10 yards out. The freshman from Euless, Texas, is the Tigers leading scorer after four games as she has scored four goals and recorded one assist for a total of nine points.
Freshman Rachel Yepez scored her second goal of the season in the 73rd minute after stealing the ball from a Houston defender at the top of the box and ripping a shot from 12 yards out into the back of the net. Yepez added an assist to finish with three points in the match.
The Tigers dominated on the offensive end of the field for the third consecutive match as they finished with 31 shots, including 16 shots on goal, and five corner kicks, while the Cougars managed just seven shots with two shots on goal and three corner kicks.
“It was a test for us to play a Sunday afternoon game after our first football game,” Lee said. “It’s tough sometimes to come back and play after that, and it’s something our young team has to learn to do. The first 10 minutes was a good awakening for us and we got it straightened out and played a great game the rest of the way.”
The Tigers return to action next weekend as they travel to Annapolis, Md., to take on Navy and Villanova in matches scheduled for Friday at 6 p.m. and Sunday at 12:30 p.m., respectively. LSU returns to Baton Rouge on Sept. 13 to take on nationally-ranked Texas in a match scheduled for 7 p.m. at the LSU Soccer Complex.