Senior Michelle Hagen had a hat trick as part of a five-goal torrent in the second half and Belton dominated Horn 6-0 Tuesday evening in a girls Class 5A bi-district soccer match at Midlothian ISD Stadium.
The victory pushed the Lady Tigers (21-1-3) into the area round - where they’ll face Garland Rowlett, which beat Carrollton Creekview 3-2 - and ended the season for the Lady Jaguars (16-8-4).
“It was obvious in the first half that we had an advantage in speed on the wings,” Belton coach Barry Elkins said. “So we made a little adjustment for the second half. The girls did what they were supposed to do and it worked well.”
With fleet-footed wing players Jourdan Brown and Hadley Young giving Horn fits on the edges, the middle of the field opened up for Chelsea Jones and Hagen, who scored all three of her goals in a span of 4 minutes.
Hagen - a Baylor signee - made it 2-0 when she hooked in a corner kick from the left side only 5 minutes after halftime. After a Lady Jaguars defender misplayed the ball backward 3 minutes later, Hagen chased it down, waited for goalkeeper Samantha Parker to make a move, then buried the ball in the bottom-left corner.
She capped her hat trick less than a minute later when she found room in the middle and beat a charging Parker from 25 yards out to push her season goals total to 24.
“I was a little frustrated at halftime,” Hagen said, “but in the second half, it seemed like I was open all the time. I guess they couldn’t figure us out.”
Jones, a senior Texas A&M signee and Belton’s career goals leader, upped her season total to 31 and made it 5-0 when she beat Park with a 21-yard laser shot midway through the second half.
Kali Hellinghausen put on the finishing touches with a penalty-kick goal against reserve keeper Morgan Schmidt with 2 minutes remaining.
“The girls were trying to play more direct - just like we wanted - from the start,” Elkins said. “We probably could have controlled the ball more against them, but I didn’t want to rein them in and change their mindset.”
Brown’s bursting runs finally paid off in the 32nd minute. She kept chasing a through pass down the middle that was seemingly out of reach, and when Parker bobbled her attempted grab, the ball bounced off Brown’s leg and in for the only goal of the first half.
The Lady Jaguars didn’t muster a shot in the first 40 minutes as the Lady Tigers stayed on the offensive almost the entire half. Jones banged a shot off the right post, and Parker made a pair of nice saves on attempts by Hagen and Young before Brown struck.
Horn totaled four shots after intermission - two of which had to be saved by Belton keeper Kelsi Darr - but only one from inside 25 yards.
edrennan@temple-telegram.com
