September 24, 2012
SPREADING THE WEALTH
Four Bears score in 4-0 win

WACO, Texas – Four different players scored as 25th-ranked Baylor closed out the nonconference portion of its schedule with a 4-0 shutout of Stephen F. Austin on Sunday night at Betty Lou Mays Soccer Field.

The win improved the Bears’ overall record to 9-1-2 in advance of Friday’s Big 12 home opener versus Kansas (7-2-1). This season at home, Baylor is 5-0 and has held its opponents to only one goal in those five contests.

“I was very stressed about this game for the last two days, because Stephen F. Austin is a great team,” Baylor head coach Marci Jobson said. “I knew we had to come out playing with our hearts, our minds and our souls and we did that. My team shook off all the pressures facing them and played great tonight.”

Coming off of a double overtime tie at Oklahoma on Friday, Baylor showed no signs of fatigue versus SFA (7-3) as the Bears scored in the first 10 minutes of a game for only the second time this season.

Senior forward Vic Hoffman earned a free kick for the Bears after being wrestled to the ground by a SFA defender just outside the penalty area in the eighth minute. Freshman Katie Daigle put the ball back in play by lofting it into the six-yard box towards senior Hanna Gilmore. The midfielder rose and headed in the set piece offering over the outstretched arm of Ladyjack goalkeeper Morgan Glick. It was Gilmore’s third goal of the season and Daigle’s third assist.

“Katie Daigle had a great ball into the box and we executed well on that set piece,” Jobson said. “It was so good to get that early goal. At Oklahoma, we were doing all the right things, but it just wasn’t going in. Tonight, it was good to see that sometimes it does go in when you do the right things.”

Baylor stretched the lead to 2-0 in the 28th-minute as Lisa Sliwinski collected her third goal of the year. The senior warded off two SFA defenders as she received a pass inside the six-yard box from Dana Larsen. Sliwinski collected the ball and wasted no time slotting it past a charging Glick to the far post.

A little over a minute before halftime, the Bears scored their third and most improbable goal of the match. Alexa Wilde kicked forward a ball from just inside the midfield stripe that took one bounce and skipped over the head of Glick. It was the sophomore’s first goal of the season.

In the second half, the Bears opted to play a more defensive style limiting SFA to only four shots. The Ladyjacks best chance to score came in the 80th minute as Zuri Prince tried to head in a free kick opportunity, but goalkeeper Michelle Kloss punched the ball out to keep SFA scoreless.

Michelle Hagen tallied Baylor’s final goal in the 88th minute on a feed from Jordan Hatler. The pass left Hagen alone at the top of the box and the senior ripped a shot past a diving Glick. It was Hagen’s fourth goal of the year and Hatler’s team-leading fourth assist.

BU outshot SFA 22-6.

Baylor is the only one-loss team left in the Big 12 and currently has won seven straight matches at home. BU improves to 3-1 all-time versus the Ladyjacks and 33-10-6 at home under Marci Jobson.

The Bears will host Kansas on Friday at 7 p.m.