BOLIVAR, Mo. — Sooner or later, it was bound to happen. And the time came Sunday at SBU Soccer Field.
Brielle Heuglin had periodically teased a breakout performance throughout this season for the Bellarmine University women's soccer team, and the freshman midfielder delivered on that promise against Southwest Baptist in recording a hat trick along with two assists in a 6-0 romp in Great Lakes Valley Conference play.
It was the program's first hat trick since Emily Hollander scored three goals against Saint Joseph's in September of 2012.
"What a coming-out party for Brielle," Knights Coach
Chris Tinius said. "She has been playing pretty well but not quite making the right decision on the final pass or what technique to use to finish. Boy did she get it right today!"
Heuglin scored the first three goals of her career for Bellarmine (10-3-1, 7-3-1 GLVC), which piled up its highest amount of goals since Tinius' debut with the Knights on Sept. 5, 2014 in a 6-2 win over Tiffin. Freshman forward
Heavyn O'Connell, senior forward
Annabel Moore and junior midfielder
Natalie Teo all added a goal against the Bearcats (3-9-1, 2-9), while O'Connell, Moore, Teo and sophomore midfielder
Laurie Hargis notched one assist each.
Before Sunday, Bellarmine's highest-scoring output this season had been two, which the Knights produced on four occasions, including two of their last three matches. While Bellarmine has been shut out only twice this year, finishing has nonetheless been a source of struggle for the Knights.
"That was a performance we've needed in a lot of different ways and good to see," Tinius said.
Although the score certainly wouldn't suggest it, Bellarmine had a pretty lackluster performance for most of the first half before a big-time elevation into utter supremacy. Heuglin's quickness and shiftiness first came into play in the 29th minute when she eluded a defender and crossed to O'Connell for an easy finish and 1-0 lead. It was O'Connell's first career goal.
Bellarmine scored two more goals inside the last 10 minutes of the first half to take a 3-0 advantage at the intermission. Moore netted her third goal of the season in the 37th minute after driving in a rebound off a deflection following a Heuglin shot and goalkeeper save. Moore then returned the favor, spotting Heuglin in the 41st minute as she fired in her first collegiate goal.
"We honestly didn't start the game very well, and SBU has gotten some early goals at home this year so we were a bit vulnerable," Tinius said. "We did a good job of coming out of that to get some goals before halftime."
Bellarmine would get three more after halftime. An O'Connell cross that Teo relayed to Heuglin resulted in a 4-0 lead in the 41st minute. Teo put away her second goal of the season off a Hargis service in the 86th minute, and Heuglin utilized her crafty dribbling skills again to free herself up for her hat trick-sealing goal in the 89th minute.
Bellarmine finished with a 20-7 advantage in shots, including 14-2 on goal. The defense tallied its ninth shutout.
"We knew we needed an impact from our depth, and it seemed like almost every time we made a change something good happened," Tinius said. "We needed some people to get some confidence of seeing the ball hit the net again and that worked out for us too."
Bellarmine hosts Maryville at 3:55 p.m. (ET) Friday.
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BOX SCORE (HTM)
