A strong header in the 73rd minute by senior midfielder Alisa Arthur propelled the Kent State Soccer team to a 1-0 win against Ball State Sunday.

The goal was Arthur’s sixth goal of the season in eight games – last season, in 21 games, Arthur scored 10 goals.

Arthur leads the team in goals but did not score in the previous two games before the matchup with Ball State.

At the beginning of the game, the Flashes started off slow with few shots. They gave Ball State many opportunities to score, as Ball State had three corners to the Flashes’ zero, and BSU shot the ball four more times in the first half.

“I didn’t think we started off really well. It was a very good first 45 minutes, but then I felt the second half, we responded and did a lot better, and scored a wonderful goal off Alisa,” coach Rob Marinaro said. “Those are things that we can continue to build off of.”

The Flashes started a winning streak after playing Ball State for their first home game of the season against a Mid-American Conference opponent. 

KSU is 18-17 against The Cardinals all-time, and have three ties. The last time the teams went head to head, Kent State lost 3-1. 

Prior to this game, KSU had won against Toledo to kick off the two-game winning streak. 

After the win, The Flashes are 5-2-1 overall and 2-0 in the conference. 

Buffalo, Kent State and Bowling Green are all tied for first place in the MAC with 2-0 conference records.

The breakdown 

There were six fouls in the first 21 minutes of the match. Ball State had four, and Kent State had two. 

The Flashes first shot was not attempted until the 22nd minute, and none were made after that in the first half.  

During the second half, both teams traded some shots until the Flashes scored in the 73rd minute. 

Junior defenseman Kelsey Salopeck assisted the goal by kicking a long cross shot to Arthur who headed the ball in. 

“It was a great service from Kelsey, and a great run for her,” Marinaro said. “She took advantage of the space that she had in front of her. This is something that they’ve been working on for a real long time with coach Rocky (Sasitharan), and it was great to see them capitalize in a game”.

Salopeck, along with fellow defenseman sophomore Ava Todd and freshmen Ali Weibel and Alison Collins played stout defense for KSU. Ball State only had five shots on goal, and the Cardinals could not convert on any of them. 

“Our back four were very good yesterday. It was kind of like bend but don’t break,” Marinaro said. “If the defense gave something up, Heidi (Marshall) was there for us, and those are the kind of things that we’re going to need in order to win. The team defense needs to be a little bit better, because we just gave them a few too many opportunities, but we’re fortunate that Heidi had an amazing game.”

The Cardinals have two of the top scorers in the conference, but the Kent State defense managed to not allow a shot on goal from the two. 

Ball State applied pressure even when trailing with three shots in the last nine minutes. 

BSU totaled nine shots total, while Kent State could only shoot five shots total, which was the same number of the shots on goal by Ball State.

“We need to play better as an entire unit for a complete game,” Marinaro said.

Senior goalkeeper Heidi Marshall had three saves in the first half that kept Ball State from scoring, while Kent State shot the ball one time. The BSU goalie made only one save to keep the score tied going into the second half.

“She was fantastic yesterday,” Marinaro said. “She made some saves that kept us in the game, and she was a major reason that we got the win yesterday.” 

Marshall recorded her third shutout of the season in the 1-0 victory. She has pitched back-to-back shutouts to accomplish three career shutouts.  

Up next

The Flashes will continue with the third game of MAC play at 7 p.m. Thursday when they host Miami University.

The last time KSU played The RedHawks, the Flashes lost 1-0. 

“I still think for conference play, we need to play better for a consistent 90 minutes,” Marinaro said. “We’re playing a little bit in spurts right now, and the fact that we’re still getting the results, but if we want to continue to do better in this conference, we’re going to have to have a consistent 90 minutes.” 

Emily Lowen is a reporter. Contact her at [email protected].