By KYLE MANTHE
Special to TopSports.news
Seaman soccer took no chances in its first-round Class 5A regional matchup against Lansing (6-10-1) Tuesday, scoring five goals in the first half and coasting to a 9-0 win.
Seaman senior Jaycee Schumann (10) registered a three-goal hat trick in the Vikings' 9-0 Class 5A regional win over Lansing Tuesday night. [Photo by Kyle Manthe/Special to TSN]
Senior Brooklyn Yingling (6) scored two goals as Seaman topped Lansing 9-0 Tuesday to advance to a Class 5A regional final at Seaman. [Photo by Kyle Manthe/Special to TSN]
Seaman freshman Ava Golightley (26) had two goals in the Vikings' 9-0 Class 5A regional romp past Lansing. [Photo by Kyle Manthe/Special to TSN]
The No. 4 seeded Vikings (14-1-2) will host No. 5 Saint Thomas Aquinas for the regional championship at 6:15 p.m. on Thursday.
The opening-round win sets up a chance at redemption for Seaman, which had its season end to the Saints last year on Aquinas' way to a state title.
“We’ll have to play super well on Thursday to compete, I think we can play really well and beat anybody if we are at our best level … I don’t think they should need any motivating,” said Seaman coach Tim Nussbaum. “If you want to be the best then you need to beat the best and that’s our slogan. We are going to have a good training tomorrow, play our best on Thursday and leave it on the field.”
After finishing the season with two ties and a combined one goal scored Seaman spread its offensive production around on Tuesday, with five players scoring goals, all coming in the first 61 minutes of action.
“I think sometimes you have to have the mindset of whoever you play you have to play well and have a standard, and for a bit we didn’t have the standard and then we got it back,” Nussbaum said.
When the two teams played in Lansing on April 25, the Vikings came away with a 10-0 win. Senior Jaycee Schumann made sure it was more of the same this time around, leading Seaman’s offensive attack, scoring two goals in the first eight minutes of action while eventually notching a hat trick in the second half and also picking up two assists.
“It’s a good way to start, you know, our senior leaders are scoring tons of goals for us this year, they are assisting and scoring, and we are going to need the same thing on Thursday,” Nussbaum said.
In the final six minutes of the half freshman Ava Golightley got two breakaway opportunities behind the Lions' defense and converted both of them, quickly turning a 3-0 game into a 5-0 game heading into the break.
After hooking up once in the first half Schumann was able to connect with senior Brooklyn Yingling just three minutes into the second half, with Yingling scoring her second goal of the game. Schumann completed her hat trick on an unassisted goal with 32:12 left in the match.
Freshman Ryin Miller got into the scoring action, depositing another unassisted goal into the back of the net after getting behind Lansing’s defense to make it 8-0. The final Viking goal came on a penalty kick by junior Makena Schuler with 19:55 left. For most of the second half Seaman was able to get all available players time on the field in advance of Thursday’s match.
Defensively, the Vikings held the Lions to just one shot attempt in the game, helping sophomore Maegan Mills secure a second straight shutout. Seaman had 20 shot attempts in the first half alone and finished with more than 30 in the match.
SEAMAN 9, LANSING 0
Lansing (6-10-1) 0 0 – 0
Seaman (14-1-2) 5 4 – 9
Seaman – Goals: Schumann 3, Yingling 2, Golightley 2, Miller, Schuler. Assists: Schumann 2. Shutout: Mills
