DelawareSports.com
4/2/00
Delaware Sports Games of the Week
St. Mark's Vs AI duPont Girls Soccer
by Marshal Manlove - editor
Beth Belanger scored a goal with seven minutes remaining to boost AI duPont to a 3-2 victory in the rematch of last year's championship soccer game between the Tigers and the Spartans of St. Mark's. Belanger's goal was her second, both of which were scored on corner kicks.
The Tigers scored first 12 minutes into the game when Jessica Natalie hit Belanger with a beautifully played corner kick into the crease of the goal. Belanger stroked a header to get on the board.
A minute and a half later, Natalie lofted a 20 yarder for a goal for herself on a shot that Spartan freshman goalie Lauren Lewandowski couldn't catch up to after being pulled out of position.
Spartan sophomore Shannon Bradbury cut the lead in half with 10 minutes to go in the half. Shortly afterwards she was cut down from behind by Tiger Katie Mazzio, who recieved a yellow card on the play, and appeared to suffer knee damage. She did return later in the second half to a chorus of cheerfs from the Spartan faithful.
Five minutes into the second half, the Spartans tied the game on an Ashley Dilworth penalty shot. She had been pushed down on the border of the box by freshman Danielle Nourie and neatly placed her PK into the right corner of the goal past a diving Erin Tully.
St. Mark's coach Tom DeMatteis was pleased with his team's performance despite the loss. He said, "Out of the four games we've played obviously this is the only loss, but I feel better coming out of this one than I did any of the three wins. To their credit, after we scored the PK they put the pressure on us, and we had a little trouble regrouping but they just battled all the way."
Belanger said that "In the second half we really picked it up and started to win our 50-50 balls. Then we started controlling the game." They didn't have any special plan for the hungry Spartans. Belanger said, "We wanted to do what we had to do. We didn't really prepare for them, we prepared for us. We just came and we just wanted to play our game. It (St. Mark's) is our rival so we just wanted to do all we could."
The Tigers improve to 2-0 and drop the Spartans to 3-1.