The LSU soccer team’s season keeps climbing higher and higher.LSU beat Oklahoma, 4-0, in Norman, Okla., to keep its perfect record intact (6-0-0) and its chances at a top-10 ranking alive.The Tigers entered the game ranked No. 11 by Soccer America, No. 15 by Soccer Buzz and No. 17 by Soccer Times.If LSU moves into the Soccer America Top 10 today, it will be the first top-10 ranking in school history.”You want to set tangible goals throughout the course of the season,” said LSU coach Brian Lee. “One of the ones for this week was to get a win on Friday night and see if we can jump in the top 10 before [Southeastern Conference] play starts.”LSU outpaced Oklahoma (1-7-0), 12-2, in shots on goal despite outshooting them 15-14.A shot that will score if the goalkeeper does not stop it is a shot on goal. A shot that goes wide of the goal or hits the crossbar is only called a shot.”I wouldn’t worry too much about the actual shot charts,” Lee said. “I think that one read that we had a bunch of shots on goal, and they had a bunch of shots. I would guess that there’s a little inaccuracy in one of those two counts.”The Tigers raced to a 3-0 halftime lead and never looked back, giving the Sooners their fifth straight loss.Senior forward Roslyn Jones scored first for the Tigers in the sixth minute on a pass from junior forward Rachel Yepez.Yepez nearly scored the goal herself, but Oklahoma redshirt freshman goalkeeper Lisa Jett blocked the shot. Yepez recovered the ball and passed it to Jones, who delivered with the goal.”We really could have scored a couple [goals] in the first 10 minutes,” Lee said.LSU’s second goal came with ease, as junior midfielder Melissa Clarke scored on an unassisted and uncontested shot in the 22nd minute.Junior forward Amanda   Carreno picked up the third LSU goal of the first half in the final minute before halftime.Freshman forward/midfielder Kellie Murphy scored the final goal in the 67th minute to finish the scoring at 4-0.”I thought our backline did a really good job of winning possession, and then when we won it, keeping it so that we had possession into the attacking half,” Lee said.LSU had three offsides penalties in the game — two coming in the first half.”I’d like us to be offsides more,” Lee said. “We want to get as close to the last line of defense as possible.”LSU travels to Mississippi State on Friday and Ole Miss on Sunday to begin Southeastern Conference play.—-
Contact Robert Stewart at [email protected]