Hoosiers blow lights out on Gophers, Buckeyes

Blow out those birthday candles, Hoosiers. You deserve them.\nSenior defender Lauren Lamping scored the lone goal for the IU women's soccer team Friday night -- \nher birthday -- to lead the Hoosiers to a 1-0 win against Minnesota. Senior midfielder Ali Brown followed suit Sunday -- the day after her birthday -- scoring two goals for the Hoosiers in a 2-1 victory against Ohio State.\n"It was really exciting," Lamping said about getting the game winner on her birthday. "Then Ali scored two the day after her birthday. We're hoping we have a few birthdays next weekend so we can get a few goals."\nThe games were the first of the Big Ten season for the Hoosiers, who were able to pick up the two home wins. IU coach Mick Lyon has said he hopes to win all of the Hoosiers' home Big Ten games and was happy with his team's effort this weekend.\n"It's no different than (IU football) coach (Terry Hoeppner) Hep saying 'hey, we got a rock, and we're going to protect it.' That's what we're doing; we want to win every game and protect Yeagley Field."\nIU started Friday night with a game against the Golden Gophers of Minnesota. Just three minutes after kickoff, lightning was spotted from Bill Armstrong Stadium, and the players were called off the field. The delay lasted nearly two hours until, finally, at 9:03 p.m. the game resumed.\n"I could tell even from just the first three or four minutes we played before the rain delay that we were on, and so I was hoping that would continue," Lyon said.\nFreshman defender Kelly Lawrence left the game for nearly 10 minutes because of a bloody nose. Not even a minute after returning, Lawrence was able to make a defensive play on the Gophers' Lindsey Schwartz, who was looking to take a shot on Hoosier goalkeeper Stacey Van Boxmeer.\nIU's defense was able to keep the Gophers from getting any solid shots on Van Boxmeer, and the game was scoreless at halftime. However, IU was able to break the tie in the 59th minute of the game off a Brown free kick pass to Lamping, who blasted the ball toward the net from 30 yards out.\n"I think just because of the wetness, (the ball) was spinning a little bit," Lamping said.\nFrom there the Hoosiers' defense was able to stop Minnesota's offense from getting a decent shot on net. With 10 seconds remaining, Boots kicked a possible Gopher attack out of bounds, securing a 1-0 win for the Hoosiers.\nIn the OSU game, IU was able to put pressure on the Buckeye goal, but early on the bounces seemed not to go its way. An apparent goal by freshman forward Kristin Arnold in the 15th minute was called offside. With 34 seconds left in the half, the Hoosiers finally caught their break.\nFollowing a foul called on the Buckeyes, Brown took the free kick and attempted to pass it to a Hoosier inside the goal box. The pass went too far and looked to be going to the right of the net, but a bounce on the ground caused the ball to change direction, and OSU goalkeeper Lauren Robertson was unable to make an adjustment for the bounce. The Hoosiers were up 1-0 going into the half.\n"I turned to run back on defense because I didn't think that it was going to go," Brown said. "I thought the goalie had it, then all of a sudden I heard the crowd roar."\nThe Buckeyes tied the game up just 27 seconds into the second half off of a goal by Lara Dickenmann. Once again Brown came through for the Hoosiers with less than 10 minutes remaining. On another free kick, Brown -- already with a goal and an assist for the weekend -- scored the game-winner when she lifted her shot above Robertson's arms into the top left corner of the net from 25 yards out, giving the Hoosiers a 2-1 win.\n"I mean that's Beckham-ish, that's how good that was," Lyon said. "They got a good keeper; that was Beckham-ish."\nIU -- now on an eight-game unbeaten streak -- continues Big Ten play next weekend when it travels to Michigan to play the Wolverines and Spartans.