Saint Mary's continued its season-opening unbeaten streak by dominating Adrian in a 7-0 victory Saturday. The Belles (4-0-1) rose to 1-0-1 in the MIAA while Adrian (0-4-0) dropped to 0-1 in conference play.Carolyn Logan and Ashley Hinton led an explosive Saint Mary's offense. Logan pulled off a hat trick, scoring two goals in the first half and one the second. Hinton scored two goals and two assists.Logan's third goal came with 13:32 left in the second half. After dribbling past one defender to the right, Logan fired a one-timer across the goal and into the net. Twenty-three seconds later, Hinton faked out her defender, planted and sent a high, curving 15-yard kick past Adrian's diving goalie for her second goal of the game. The goals put Saint Mary's ahead 6-0.The Belles controlled the pace of the game throughout. Adrian struggled clearing the ball versus the Saint Mary's defense. The Belles repeatedly stole throw-ins, goal kicks and passes, many of which turned into breakaways. Saint Mary's offense worked fluidly with minimal mistakes, and Coach Peter Haring was pleased with his team's effort."For our team it's great," Haring said. "I think that sometimes when you just start getting into a rhythm, all of a sudden the things just fall into place. Balls are getting played to feet, the spaces are opening up and we're able to get in and just put some quality shots on goal."Jen Concannon had three assists for Saint Mary's. Concannon assisted on two of the three Belles' first half goals. On Concannon's final assist, Wendy Irvin headed in a long Concannon pass from close range despite an Adrian defender hanging all over her. Irvin also had an assist in the game."That was a great service and a great header," Haring said. "That was well done. [Irving] sacrificed herself and just dove and squeaked in that near post."Carrie Orr capped off the scoring with a 20-yard free kick with 10:18 remaining."That was a great free kick that she bent to the near post," Haring said. "The keeper gave it to her, and [Orr] is a player who can read that really well and wherever the keeper is off-balance in the goal. The keeper was back in the post, and the wall wasn't really set up great, and [Orr] saw the seam and just bent that ball to the near post. [Orr's] dangerous in that fashion." A second half letdown was feared after the Belles led 3-0 at the half. But the Belles played even harder in the second half in preparation for a difficult upcoming schedule. The Belles had 12 shots on goal while limiting Adrian to only two shots spaced 15 minutes apart. Adrian did not attempt a shot on goal during the last 25:52 of the game."[At the half], I told them that it's necessary to keep the intensity up because we're going to be playing harder opponents later on," Haring said. "Next week on Saturday we play Hope, which is one of the top programs in the conference. And we had to use this game as a consistency to get things in rhythm for when we go over to Hope next weekend. "I told them that walking away with a 3-0 game can't be acceptable, and we have to distance ourselves from the middle group and the bottom group and put ourselves in the top group." The Belles next test comes Saturday at 1:00 p.m. at Calvin.
