In spite of a dominating performance on the stat sheet, the Spring Arbor University women's soccer team took a bit of time to find results from it's offensive pressure on the Bethel College defense Tuesday evening in Mishawaka, IN.

The Cougars out-shot the Pilots 31-7 for the match and the SAU offense also produced a whopping 11-1 advantage in corner kick attempts.

In spite of forcing the Bethel to defend the majority of the first half, the Cougars went into the halftime intermission up just 1-0 on a Karly Linton goal.  Linton picked the pocket of a Pilot defender and danced in alone on Bethel netminder Mallory Conrad, placing her shot low and to Conrad's left for the eventual game winning goal in the 19th minute.  The Cougars fired 13 shots in the first frame.

Spring Arbor attacked the Bethel defense more intelligently in the second half, leading to 18 more attempts at the Pilot goal.  The Cougars were much more efficient in the second stanza, netting three goals over an eight minute period to put the game on ice.

Nikki Bonnema made a nice dribbling run in the Pilot box to net the second SAU goal in the 64th minute.  Freshman Rachel Shive followed up with a nice piece of dribbling work of her own at the 69 minute mark, shaking a pair of Bethel defenders before unleashing a right footed strike from the left side of the Pilot penalty box for goal number three.  Junior Samantha Sturgeon finished off the scoring for Spring Arbor, netting her fourth goal of the season off a brilliantly placed header off from a cross from sophomore Shannon Balcer.

Sophomore goalkeeper Sarah Yancer collected a pair of saves through 77 minutes of play before giving way to freshman Ashley Timmons who made one save to preserve the clean sheet for the Cougars.  Spring Arbor used all 22 available players in the victory.

The ninth ranked Cougars (8-2-1 / 2-0) return to the friendly confines of the SAU soccer complex Saturday when they welcome Marian University to campus for a 7:00 p.m. tilt.