by Lenny Padilla

Anneliese Lockner, pictured, has spent her entire soccer life trying to prevent goals from scoring.

So when the Hope College senior defender scored her first career goal on Saturday, it was an emotional moment.

"Erin Powers and I have been talking about me scoring off a corner kick to my head for about three years now," Lockner said of her teammate. "So it's awesome to finally be able to live that dream out."

Lockner (Geneva, Illinois / Geneva Community HS) scored the first goal of the game with a header off a corner kick by Powers to help the Flying Dutch beat Kalamazoo College, 3-0, on a rainy, cold Saturday afternoon.

Hope improves to 4-2-1 in the MIAA and 10-4-1 overall. Kalamazoo falls to 4-3–0 in conference and 10-4-0 overall. 

"It's super big," said sophomore Madison Holloway (Holland, Mich. / Holland Christian HS). "We've played three games in four days, which is something you never see in college. The fact that we rose to the challenge says a lot about how resilient and gritty we are."

Goalkeeper Isabelle Bertolone (Muskegon, Michigan / Muskegon Catholic Central HS) set the tone of the game early. The senior stopped a penalty kick, diving to her left to deflect the ball.

"If they score on that penalty kick, it changes the momentum," head coach Leah Sears said. "So for her to stop the shot, it swung the momentum in our favor."

Watch an interview with Isabelle Bertolone

Then Hope got a goal from the least-likely player to score with 33 minutes to go in the first half with the Lockner-Powers goal for a 1-0 lead.

"We've been working on that all year," Sears said. "We've been saying 'someday she's gonna get it.' Thank goodness she got it today. Huge timing."

Six minutes later, Bella Nagelkirk (Hudsonville, Michigan / Unity Christian HS), pictured left, got a ball past the goalkeeper for a 2-0 lead. It was the freshman's second goal of the season. She also scored against Adrian on Thursday.

"It's good for her to score a goal, especially for a freshman," Sears said. 

Sarah Mikesell (Norton Shores, Michigan / Mona Shores HS) made it 3-0 when the senior ripped a shot from about 30-yards out into the lower left corner of the net. It was her 10th goal of the season, which leads the team.

Bertolone, who has been a backup to Parker Hutchinson most of the year, made some amazing saves, including a diving save in the final five minutes to preserve the shutout.

"(Isabelle) had broken her pinky finger recently," Lockner said. "So for her to play the way she did, I was so proud of her."

Bertolone made five saves. The Flying Dutch drilled 26 shots and 14 of them were on net.

Hope plays its final regular-season game on Tuesday when it hosts Olivet College for a 7 p.m. contest.