August 26, 2011

SPORTS: Huge First Half Seals Jaguars Fate

by Candis Cunningham

The third time wasn’t a charm for the IUPUI Women’s Soccer team in their home opener against Detroit, falling 5-1.

The Detroit Titans came out blazing, putting the Jaguars on their heels and knocking them off their task of setting an aggressive tone from the beginning of the game. Alyssa Korson kicked off the game with an unassisted goal that was unable to be cleared by an IUPUI defender at 9:53 for the Titans first tally.

With the Titans going full speed and out-hustling the Jags, four more goals came with no problems, while the Jags finished the half with four missed shot attempts.

In Coach Chris Johnson’s ninth season, he knows what caused the problems.

“We had a defensive breakdown and gave up a goal,” Johnson said. “I felt that from a standpoint of just 4-2, we fell apart. We just didn’t believe in each other enough to think that we were going to come back from that and that’s how we played the second half.”

Junior Sarah Dzuris scored at 13:48 with a corner kick to the far post and rolled the shot past Jaguars goalie Giselle Guzman. Next, Sophomore Kaitlyn Quarrell followed up with two of the next three goals. Her first shot came off a rebound from in close and her second goal was the last of the half. With an assist from Miranda Dufresne, Quarrell beat the goalie with the long lead ball.

It was clear the Jags had to make some adjustments to avoid being shut out and they did. In the second half the ladies came out with some new energy. Senior Megan Hock scored at 52:50 to finally add a tally on the board.

“We started out strong, the first ten or so minutes, but once they scored on us it was downhill for the first half,” said sophomore Kristin Pierce.

“I’m proud of the character we showed in the second half and came back and had a much better performance so from here on out I think we need to show that the whole 90 minutes.”

Three years ago, the team started off 0-2, but finished the season 17-5. So despite the ladies are down 0-3 this season, Coach Johnson has belief there’s more than enough time to turn things around.

Come see if the ladies can finally pull out a victory in their second home game of the season, a midday match against Eastern Michigan slated to begin at 1 pm inside of Kuntz Memorial Stadium.

INDIANAPOLIS 
Detroit 5 0 - 5
IUPUI 0 1 - 1

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