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Thursday, March 28, 2024
The Observer

Belles defeat Albion 8-0

After numerous tries throughout the season, the Belles have finally broken open the flood gates.After setting a season high for goals four days earlier in a 8-1 win over Tri-State University, Saint Mary's matched that feat and was impressive again in a 8-0 shutout of Adrian College. "The past two games we've played in, we've been able to score a lot of goals, and finding the net like that is always good to help us build more confidence for our upcoming games," sophomore midfielder Ashley Hinton said. "Throughout the season, we've had a lot of opportunities to score, but we could never capitalize. Recently, we've been able to put the ball in the back of the net more frequently."Hinton certainly did her part to help the offense on Saturday, scoring two quick goals in the first ten minutes to put the Belles ahead, and then adding a third later in the game off of a diving header. The hat trick against Adrian made five goals in the two games this week for Hinton, and she was rewarded for her efforts afterwards when the MIAA named her Offensive co-player of the week."Ashley played an excellent game," sophomore Carolyn Logan said. "She got inspired, stepped up her work ethic and level of play, and took advantage of what she could do on the field."Hinton wasn't the only one who was able to exploit the Adrian defense. Senior captain Jen Concannon followed her goal against Tri-State with two more Saturday, moving her into fifth place in goals scored in the conference. The Belles also got goals from McKenna Keenan, Carrie Orr and Emily Wagoner. "We've gained a lot more confidence in our offense," Logan said. "The scoring is spread around because a lot of people have stepped it up. It's good to know our offense isn't completely dependent on one or two people."Along with increased scoring, the team has been playing significantly stronger soccer since its loss to Olivet two weeks ago. "We definitely picked up some momentum after the Olivet game; each game matters, and if you want the outcome, you have to play for it on the field," Hinton said. "We realized after the Olivet game how easily we can hit a bump in the road, and we've really picked ourselves up from that game and moved on."The Belles were able to benefit from having back-to-back games at home this week, including the first game at home on a Saturday all year."Throughout this year, we've struggled with Saturday games because they were always away games," Hinton said. "There was a lot of fan support; it was really just a fun day in general."Thanks to the large number of families in town for the weekend, the crowd was even larger than usual."It was really great because we had a large crowd watching us; it felt good to play at home on a Saturday," Logan said. "I think there's a big advantage to playing at home. We have the crowd in our favor, and we don't have to deal with the long traveling time to the opponent's field. We just think to ourselves, 'We won't let anyone beat us on our field'."Although the win was important for the Belles, they now turn their attention to the game looming Wednesday against Kalamazoo."After a game like this, we're proud of our effort, but we're more focused on the Kalamazoo game than celebrating," Logan said. "We want to put the first half of the season behind us, both wins and losses, and play like this was a brand new season. We're going to focus and try our best to improve on problems from before so that we can play the best soccer that we can."