Hellweg’s Big Weekend Leads to Back-to-Bakc Wins

Reggie Thompson
The Paw Print

Senior forward Jessica Hellweg, (Lake Island, Ill.) put together a natural hat trick in her team’s home-opener on Friday, helping the the Grizzlies win 5 – 1 over the Falcons of the University of Texas-Permian Basin.  This is the team’s second win of the season.
“She sets the standard for the rest of the team,” head coach Tom Cliff says of his top scorer.  “She’s an example of what a [Division] II athlete should look like.”
The Grizzlies scored early and often, scoring four of their five goals in the first 15:11 in the game;  Autumn Boyer opened the game up at minute 3:01 with her first career goal to give the Grizzlies the early lead. Junior midfielder Kaylee Smith came in with the assist.  The next three goals composed Hellweg’s hat trick. A Whitney Smith-assisted goal at minute 4:29 got it started.  Then came a goal at 6:18 with the assist by freshman midfielder/forward Paige Bendele (Lakewood, Colo.).  To close out the hat trick, Hellweg scored on an unassisted open-net goal.

Courtesy of the ASC Sports Information Desk: Paige Bendele

Cliff credited the women’s fast start to the loss at Colorado State-Pueblo.  “We played poorly at Pueblo… [today] we challenged the girls to embrace who we are.”
The shutout ended with a Falcon goal by means of senior forward Hannah Dozier (Midland, Texas) approximately three minutes into the second half.  Freshman midfielder/forward iced the game for the Grizzlies with a skillful goal right off of the goalkeeper, junior Victoria Ramirez’s (Midland, Texas) fingertips from 18 yards away.
Sunday, in a thrilling double overtime bout with Angelo State, Hellweg accounted for the only two goals of the game (her fourth and fifth of the season) propelling them to victory.
The first goal of the game did not come until midway through the second half, when Hellweg scored on a penalty kick opportunity.  Roughly 17 minutes later, Angelo State retaliated with a goal from senior forward Brandie DeBacker, (New Braunfels, Texas).  With the game tied at one through regulation and the first overtime, the chance of coming out with a win was starting to fade for the Grizzlies.  In the 107th , after receiving a pass from Whitney Smith, Hellweg was able to just float one over the freshman goalkeeper Taylor Cardinal to secure the win.
On Sept. 16, the team will head up to Denver for the first taste of conference play against Metropolitan State.  In the lone game against the Roadrunners a year ago, the Grizzlies suffered a 2 – 0 loss.