The Forester women's soccer team continues to hold the top spot in the Midwest Conference standings after posting a 4-1 victory at Illinois College Saturday night.
Lake Forest's
Anna Hoffman started the scoring less than three minutes into the contest when she took a pass from fellow junior midfielder
Izzy DeStefano while on the break and slipped a shot into the left corner of the goal.
The Lady Blues, however, tied the game at the 19:16 mark and the score remained 1-1 for more than 23 minutes. Forester junior midfielder
Caitlin Mulcahy then headed in a well-placed cross from junior forward
Anna Gracia, who had her back to the goal just before turning and making the pass from near the goal line on the right side of the box.
The Foresters out-shot the Lady Blues 8-1 in the first half.
Lake Forest's two second-half goals were scored less than a minute apart by Hoffman. A cross from the right side of the field from sophomore defender
Lola Halsband skimmed off the head of an Illinois College defender before reaching Hoffman, who toed it past the keeper and into the right side of the goal at 75:45. Fifty-eight seconds later a long pass bounced high into the box, where Hoffman headed it up into the air. On of two Lady Blue defenders in the immediate area also headed it up before Hoffman out-jumped the other to head the ball into the goal and secure her first career hat trick.
Hoffman now leads the MWC with 13 goals overall and nine in seven conference contests.
The Foresters finished the game with a 19-9 advantage in shots. Three of the home team's attempts were on target and two were stopped by Lake Forest senior goalkeeper
Franca Finch, who improved to 8-1-2 on the season.
The victory raised the Foresters overall record to 11-2-3 and league mark to 6-0-1. Lake Forest will host a non-conference game against the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Wednesday at 4:00 p.m. before closing out the regular season against Cornell College at home next Saturday afternoon at 1:30. A victory over Cornell would clinch at least a share of the conference championship for the Foresters.
