Hall’s brace leads Kent State soccer to senior day win
Kent State defender Yasmine Hall evades Morehead State defender Abby Timm during the second half of the Flashes matchup against Eagles. Hall recorded two goals in the Flashes three two victory on Sept. 7, 2018.
September 7, 2018
The Kent State women’s soccer team (3-3-1) got two goals from Yasmine Hall in a 3-2 victory over Morehead State University (1-6-0) on senior day.
The five seniors, Ashleah McDonald, Miranda Lambert, Paige Culver, Dominique DiNardo, and Cassandra Sauter, were all honored by a short ceremony prior the game. The qunitent all started the match as well.
“These five ladies are a wonderful group of ladies who exemplify strong leadership,” coach Rob Marinaro said. “They are all about doing things the right way, and they have won us a lot of championships. Hopefully they can win us one more.”
“Coming into the game we knew we needed to improve as a unit, and needed a stronger effort for 90 minutes,” Marinaro said.
The team recorded a strong first half, with Vital Kats and Yasmine Hall jump starting the Flashes offense. Vital started the scoring in the 23rd minute with a penalty kick goal, her first goal of the season. Hall followed with a goal in the 29th minute from 20 yards out off an assist from Kats. The Flashes outshot the Eagles 10-3 in the first half.
“Our first half was the effort we had been looking for, going into the second half we were hoping to repeat the first half,” Marinaro said. “Unfortunately there was a bit of a drop off, and we didn’t come out as strong.”
Morehead State came alive in the second half with two goals off the boot of Dani Wilson. Wilson scored in the 57th and 64th minute, but luckily for the Flashes, Hall had an answer. She played hero in the 81st minute when she sent a ricochet into the back of the net off an assist from Kats. The Flashes defense stayed strong for the remainder of the match, and the Flashes walked off the pitch with a 3-2 win.
“Yasmine has been really working on her game, putting extra time into her shooting, and it really payed off tonight,” Marinaro said. “Overall I think we had great effort from the entire unit. Everyone stepped up.”
The Flashes play next on Thursday at Syracuse, giving the team five days to prepare, a time frame that will allow Marinaro to work on some things with the team.
“We haven’t seen nine minutes of quality yet,” said Marinaro, “so we will continue to improve our game. In addition we are going to work on being more unpredictable in our attack.”
Gina Butkovich is a sports reporter. Contact her at [email protected].
