NORMAL, Ill. - The Drew Roff era at Illinois state got off to a good start on Friday afternoon. The Illinois State women's soccer team dominated on both sides of the ball to beat UW-Green Bay, 2-0, in its first regular season game under the new head coach. The Redbirds' offense was in sync and the defense shut down the Phoenix the entire game.
Junior forward Mel Routledge was the catalyst of the potent Redbird offense. Routledge netted both Redbird goals and took 11 shots, the second-most in a game in ISU history. It was the first time in her career that Routledge scored twice in one game. She also moves into fourth place on the school's career goals list with 12.
"It was great to see Mel step up and score two goals," Roff said. "She had an impressive first half and Green Bay had to focus on shutting her down, which opened up some avenues for some other players. It is the center forward's job to be dangerous and score goals. She did a great job of that and we did a great job of finding her."
The Redbirds had 20 shots in the game, 11 in the first half and nine in the second. Senior midfielder Yvonne Northover had five and sophomore midfielder Danielle Mutters, senior forward Bethany Russ, freshman forward Alyssa Schulz and sophomore forward Ammanda Wisniewski each had a shot for ISU.
Sophomore goalkeeper Katie Grill Donovan made her first-career start, but she wasn't called on much. Her defense did such an effective job shutting down the Green Bay attack that she didn't need to make a save to record the first shutout of her career. The Redbirds limited the Phoenix to just one shot, and it came in the 79th minute.
The Redbirds had control from the beginning of the match. They took three shots in just over two minutes early on and controlled the pace of the game. Routledge took over from that point as she was in on nearly every offensive chance the Redbirds had. After she missed her first two shots, Routledge found the back of the net in the 31st minute. Off a corner kick by senior defender Amanda Lauber, Routledge corralled a loose ball in the middle of the penalty box and ripped a low line drive shot passed the goalie to put the Redbirds ahead, 1-0.
With less than 10 minutes left in the half, Routledge created two more chances for ISU to add onto its lead. She managed to get behind the Green Bay defense and had a beat on a long pass, but Green Bay goalkeeper Brooke Wikgren came out and covered the ball just before she could get control of it. A few minutes later, she took the ball in deep and played a cross into the box that went past Wikgren in front of a wide open net, but no ISU players could get there to make a play.
The second was much of the same for both teams as the Redbirds continued to put the pressure on Green Bay. Northover had a shot six second into the action that was stopped by Wikgren. In the 62nd minute, Routledge capped the Illinois State scoring when she lifted a sliding shot over a diving Wikgren to produce the final margin.
Illinois State (1-0) visits Valparaiso (1-0) on Sunday at noon.
