Tiffany DeClark, Annie Wayland and Kelly Mahan scored two goals apiece as the Illinois State soccer team blasted Northern Iowa 7-0 Sunday in Valley action at Adelaide Street Field.
With the win, Illinois State improved to 12-3, 5-1 in league play, and notched its sixth-straight win remaining undefeated at home since 1998. The Redbirds broke the ISU team record for most goals in a game against the Panthers with seven, one better than the previous record of six. Northern Iowa falls to 3-12-2, 2-4-1 in the conference.
DeClark, who scored the teams game-winning goal against Creighton on Friday, opened up the scoring for Illinois State in the first half when she gained possession of the ball ten feet to the right of the goalie and shot a one-timer past UNI keeper Anne Marie Witko. Six minutes later, Annie Wayland, who now has a team and league-high 16 goals for the year, connected on a pass from Diana Puckett at the 33:01 mark, lifting the Redbirds 2-0.
A second goal by DeClark three minutes later gave ISU a comfortable 3-0 lead going into the halftime break, which didnt slow the Birds down as Chrystal Johnston gained momentum to run from midfield to the goal box and shoot past Witko for ISUs fourth goal 1:17 into the second half.
Waylands second goal came at 55:30 and Kelly Mahan scored ISUs final two in the last 28 minutes of the game. Redbird goalies Becky Feldmann and Jen Sandenaw shared time in the net, with Sandenaw making one save in the game. ISU outshot the Panthers 29-2, although one of the those shots was a near miss by Karyn Borcherding of UNI early in the first.
Head coach Pete Kowall said the shot by Borcherding really opened up his teams eyes and set the tone for the way they came out and played the rest of the game.
That shot missed the goal by so little that I think it really set the tone for the way Northern Iowa was going to play, Kowall said. But we ended up seeing this early and came out harder and took control of the ball early and often after that to take good shots and get some goals.
In the first half we didnt connect as well, Kowall continued. In the second we concentrated on moving the ball in angles to be able to get to the ball better and it worked for us.
Illinois State wraps up its regular season Friday against Indiana State at Adelaide Street Field. The start time for the game is 3 p.m.
