Coppes Shatters School Record With Six Goals, Falcons Win, 7-3

Friday, August 27

Bowling Green, Ohio (Falcon Classic)

4:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

DUQUESNE

August 27, 2004 | Women's Soccer

Aug. 27, 2004

Final Stats

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - Bowling Green State University senior Kristy Coppes shattered the school record with a six-goal match as the Falcon women's soccer team downed Duquesne by a 7-3 score Friday (Aug. 27). The match, the season opener for both teams, was part of the Falcon Classic at BGSU's Cochrane Field.

The six-goal match set school and Mid-American Conference records. In fact, Coppes fell just one goal shy of matching the NCAA Division I record of seven.

The match, originally scheduled to begin at 4:00 p.m., was rescheduled for approximately 5:00 p.m. after a lightning delay of nearly two hours in the first match of the day. Then, just as the teams were preparing to take the field, another lightning delay sent the Falcons and Dukes heading for shelter. The match finally got underway at 5:52 p.m.

When the match did start, it didn't take long for the fireworks to begin. With a few rumbles of thunder off in the distance, the Falcons had an early threat. Junior Samantha Meister sent a cross through the penalty box, and classmate Julie Trundle tracked it down. She turned and fired, and the ball struck the crossbar just three-and-a-half minutes in. The Falcons did, however, get on the board a few minutes later.

Junior Britt Anderson's through-ball sent Coppes in all alone on a breakaway, and the school's career scoring leader converted on her chance, giving the Brown and Orange the lead at the 7:01 mark. Just over two minutes later, the Falcons scored another goal that was nearly a mirror image.

Again, Anderson sent Coppes in on a breakaway. This time, Coppes had to make a move to elude DU goalkeeper Virginia Bondi, but the result was the same, as she deposited the ball into the empty net. Coppes' second goal came at the 9:07 mark.

The celebration had not yet died down, though, when Duquesne answered. A long centering ball from Elizabeth Riggs squirted through the hands of BG goalkeeper Samantha Martinez, and Audra Mathews was there to put the rebound home, exactly one minute after BG's second goal. The match remained 2-1 for the next 27-plus minutes. Mathews nearly scored again at 10:27 left in the half, on a free kick from just outside the box. but her ball curved just beyond the far post. Meister gave the Falcons a two-goal edge with 7:45 left in the half. She worked against two DU defenders, taking the ball into the penalty box. A Dukes defender attempted to clear the ball, but Meister lunged for the ball at the same time. She blocked the ball, sending it over Bondi's head and into the net.

But, the Dukes kept pressing, and got back to within one goal on a Faye Rasmussen blast from the top of the 18-yard box at the 41:40 mark. That capped a wild first half, before the weather reared its head once again.

A heavy rain, combined with ominous clouds off to the west, sent the teams to the lockerrooms midway through the halftime break. The third delay of the day lasted for 37 minutes. Then, however, the sun came out for the first time all day, and the second half was underway.

It didn't take Coppes long to pick up right where she had left off, as the Findlay native completed her hat trick just 45 seconds into the second half. Freshman Tiernay Tilford picked up her first collegiate point with the assist on the goal.

But, Coppes was far from finished. An Anderson cross slipped past Bondi, and Coppes was lurking on the doorstep. Anderson and junior Keeley Dayton drew assists on the play, which came at the 53:32 mark.

At the other end of the field, Falcon goalkeeper Jenifer Kernahan came up big after a failed offsides trap by the Falcons, stopping Mathews on a breakaway.

Just 21 seconds later, Coppes struck again, converting a Tilford cross for a school-record fifth goal. Kelly Reed answered with an unassisted tally for the Dukes, coming with just over 12 minutes left. But, Coppes had one more bullet in her six-shooter.

Junior Molly Bremen found Coppes with an outlet pass, and she capped her day by beating a pair of defenders along with Bondi at the 80:21 mark.

With darkness settling over Cochrane Field, the match ended at 8:16 p.m.

The Falcons held a 22-19 shots advantage, including a 15-13 margin in shots on goal. Coppes, of course, led the way with nine shots (seven on goal), while Mathews had seven shots (four on goal) for the visitors.

Martinez and Kernahan each played a half, and each made five saves. Martinez surrendered two goals in her collegiate debut, while Kernahan allowed one goal in her 45 minutes of work.

The teams return to Cochrane Field on Sunday (Aug. 29), as the Falcon Classic concludes with a pair of matches. DU will take on Eastern Michigan in Sunday's opener, beginning at 11:00 a.m., while the Falcons will host Pittsburgh in a contest scheduled for 2:00 p.m.

NOTES

Kristy Coppes set school and Mid-American Conference records with her outburst ... teammate Samantha Meister had set the BGSU record, and tied the MAC mark, with a four-goal performance in last year's win at Northern Illinois (Oct. 12, 2003).

Coppes, who entered the day already ranked as the Falcons' career leader in goals and points, now has 40 goals and 85 points in her BG tenure ... she had two previous hat tricks, against Youngstown State (Oct. 3, 2001) and Detroit (Sept. 4, 2002), and is the only player in school history with multiple matches of three goals or more.

BGSU RECORDS - GOALS IN A MATCH
6 - Kristy Coppes vs. Duquesne, 8/27/04
4 - Samantha Meister at Northern Illinois, 10/12/03
3 - Krista Shamblin at Robert Morris, 10/31/97
3 - Tracy Gleixner at Detroit, 10/27/98
3 - Kristy Coppes vs. Youngstown State, 10/3/01
3 - Kristy Coppes vs. Detroit, 9/4/02

As mentioned earlier, Coppes fell just one goal shy of the NCAA Division I record for goals in a match ... a pair of players have scored seven goals in a match ... Sarah Comeaux of Mississippi had seven goals in a match vs. Northwestern State on Nov. 1, 1996 ... Kristen Arnott of St. Francis (Pa.) matched that total in an Oct. 18, 2000 match against Youngstown State ... according to the NCAA Soccer Records manual, a player has scored six goals in a match on 11 occasions prior to the 2004 season.

Perhaps lost in the Coppes goal frenzy was the fact that junior Britt Anderson tied the school record for assists in a match, with three ... four other players, including current Falcon Nikki Pucillo (vs. Youngstown State, Oct. 3, 2001) had registered three assists in a match.

In the Duquesne match, Anderson equalled her assist total for all of last season ... she entered the 2004 season with a career total of four assists.

Freshman Tiernay Tilford had an auspicious collegiate debut ... Tilford picked up a pair of assists on Coppes goals, and played a total of 58 minutes in the win.

In addition to Tilford, junior Molly Bremen garnered the first collegiate point of her Falcon career ... Bremen picked up the primary assist on Coppes' sixth goal.

Samantha Martinez, a redshirt freshman, made her collegiate debut in Friday's match ... additionally, true frosh Janie Babich, Danielle Cygan, Denise Cygan, Rachael Ross and Gina Rossi all saw action in the match as well ... all 22 Falcons that suited up for the match saw playing time, including all six freshmen.

Coppes set a school mark for fastest four goals in a match, with her third through sixth goals coming in a span of 34:36 ... of course, she also set BG records for fastest five goals (57:34) and fastest six goals (73:20).

QUOTING COACH ANDY RICHARDS
"It was an outstanding day. It was great for the team to come out so strong and win the opening game of the season. It was a very chaotic day, a very disjointed one because of the rain delays, and that wasn't easy for either team. But, it was a great game for us, and obviously a fantastic one for Kristy Coppes."

"We knew when we first started recruiting Kristy that she was a special player, and she has continued to show that. Today really showed what a special and important player she is to our program. I think her fitness is better than ever before, and I think her fitness and strength really showed in the way she played and the goals she scored."

"It was an excellent team performance. Duquesne is a young team, but a good team that we respect tremendously, and we were very pleased to beat a team of that caliber. Now, we look forward to our game against Pittsburgh on Sunday, and hopefully the weather will cooperate a little better than it did today."