By: Ashley Sholmire now is the all-time leader in IC women’s soccer program history in both goals and points after finding the back of the net twice on Sunday.
Box Score
JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – The Illinois College women's soccer team earned an important three points on Sunday afternoon, putting the match away early in the second half of a 3-1 win over Lawrence University. The Lady Blues improve to 2-8-0 (1-1-0 Midwest Conference) and sink the Vikings to 1-6-0 (0-2-0 MWC).
Ashley Sholmire would score twice on Sunday, breaking the tie she had with Bianca Savarese as the all-time leading goal-scorer and point-producer in Illinois College history. It could have easily been more than two goals on the day, starting inside the first 10 minutes when she had a shot hit the post.
Mackenzie Bedgood added onto the pressure with a shot that had to be saved by a Lawrence defender and she later had a header off of a corner kick saved by Katlyn Seiffert.
The scoring was opened by Sholmire in the 22nd minute, making a run down the left side after Bedgood's pass ahead unlocked the Lawrence defense. Sholmire dribbled in on goal and slipped a shot low past Seiffert for her school record 28th career goal, making it 1-0. At the half, Illinois College had a 13-7 advantage in total shots, with five on goal.
Charlotte Crofton had two saves to preserve the shutout for the Lady Blues.
Inside of two minutes in the second half,
Meadow Hardy and then
Mychaela Bennett moved the ball ahead. Bennett played a ball into the box that
Olivia Dobbs latched onto and scored at the far post from just outside the six-yard box. Shortly after that, Sholmire hit the post for the second time to momentarily keep the Vikings within two goals.
That lasted until the 55th minute when
Jenny Montelongo played a ball over the top that rolled nicely for Sholmire to run onto and she easily beat the keeper to make it 3-0. The goal was the 29th in Sholmire's career.
Three minutes after that, Lawrence gave itself some life. Ryan Berkley did the heavy lifting all by herself, dribbling in from the midfield and blasting a shot over the head of Crofton in the 58th minute to slice the LU deficit to 3-1.
Though the Lady Blues continued to pressure, Bennett and Sholmire each would have shots saved by Seiffert in the final 30 minutes and Bedgood hit the post.
Illinois College ended with a 25-12 advantage in shots in the match. Crofton did not have any saves in the second half, ending with two.
The Lady Blues return to non-conference play on Sept. 26, going on the road to face Blackburn College in a 3 p.m. first kick.
