Women's Soccer Dominates Lake Erie In Home Conference Decision
Junior forward Bri Borgman's (Holland/West Ottawa) three-goal performance lifted the Ferris State University women's soccer team to a 5-0 victory over the Lake Erie Storm this Sunday (Sept. 26) afternoon in a Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) match at the FSU Soccer Field in Big Rapids, Mich.
With the triumph, the Bulldogs' season record evens to 4-4-1 overall and 4-2-1 in the GLIAC's North Division. The victory marks the fifth match in a row in which the Bulldogs haven't lost. Lake Erie drops to its overall record to 2-6-0 and 0-6-0 in the conference's South Division this fall to date.
Senior midfielder Kara Lovelace (East Kentwood) started the scoring at 6:52 in the first half when she put the ball into the left corner of the net from 18 feet out off a centering pass from Bri Borgman, who went on to tally the next three Bulldog goals. Her first came with 30 seconds left in the first half when junior defender Mekyla Spraggins (Grand Rapids/Forest Hills Central) carried the ball in on the right side, centered the pass to Borgman for a one timer.
Borgman's next score came in the second half from a penalty kick. Senior midfielder Megan Stec (Novi) made the pass through traffic to get Borgman her third goal of the contest from 12 yards out to put the Bulldogs up 4-0. Borgman finished a productive day with four points to increase her season points total to a team-leading 14 which also includes a squad-best six goals. Borgman's three-goal output marked the second of her career, matching her three tallies last season (Sept. 18) in a 6-1 conference triumph at Ashland.
Junior midfielder Sam Harrington (Ypsilanti/Lincoln) tallied her first goal of the year with just over 11 minutes left in the match. Sophomore midfielder Hillary Procunier (Davison/Flint Kearsley) made a centering pass to Harrington, who kicked the ball into the back left corner of Lake Erie's net.
Freshman goalkeeper Rachel McCollum (Grand Blanc) picked up her fourth shutout this season as she only had two turn away two Lake Erie shots on goal in improving her second record to 4-4-1. While McCollum had a quiet afternoon, Lake Erie goalkeeper Megan Baldacci was busy stopping 10 Ferris State shots on goal.
The matchup was offensively heavy for the Bulldogs, who had 32 shots in the match with 20 coming in the first half. Individually for Ferris State, Megan Stec and Bri Borgman tied for match-high honors with four shots on goal apiece. Sophomore forward Kelsey Aubil (Wayland/Thornapple-Kellogg) along with Sam Harrington each had two shots on goal.
The first-ever contest between the two teams was a physical one as the Bulldogs and Storm combined for 27 fouls with FSU accounting for 12 of those infractions.
Ferris State will continue conference home field play this Friday (Oct. 1) at 4 p.m. (EDT) facing the Ohio Dominican Panthers in Big Rapids, Mich. The encounter will be the first time these two squads face each other as the Panthers in their first season as a GLIAC member.