MIDDLETOWN, Pa. – For most soccer players, scoring six goals would make for a great season. Not the case for Penn State Harrisburg's Lyndsay Naughton (Reading, Pa. / Reading Central Catholic).
In just three games over a six-day stretch, the junior forward went on an incredible scoring-spree and found the back of the net on six separate occasions.
Naughton's big week ranks her second on our list of Penn State Harrisburg's top ten moments of the fall sports season.
On Oct. 14, the Reading native scored once against Morrisville State. She followed it up with a pair of goals against Valley Forge Christian two days later. To cap off the week, Naughton outdid herself and recorded a rare hat trick against Penn State Abington on Oct. 20.
Her goal against the Mustangs came with the game well in hand off an assist from sophomore Nikki Francis (Pottstown, Pa. / Owen J. Roberts). The Lions downed Morrisville 8-1.
Her back-to-back second half goals against Valley Forge put the game out of reach. Junior Kara Hoy (Camp Hill, Pa. / Camp Hill) assisted on both scores and Penn State Harrisburg topped the Patriots 5-2.
Some players wait their entire careers for the chance at a hat trick. Naughton needed less than a half. Her goal-scoring trifecta led the ladies to a 4-0 blanking of Abington. She scored in the match's 19th, 22nd and 30th minutes.
Her offensive outpouring in mid-October made her a shoo-in for the North Eastern Athletic Conference's (NEAC) Student-Athlete of the Week honor.
Naughton was the Lions' leading-scorer this fall with an impressive 18 goals and she "dangled" her way onto the NEAC's all-conference first-team list for the second-straight year.
What will she do for encore during her senior season in 2013? We'll just have to wait and see.
Be sure to check back as we unveil the number one entry on Penn State Harrisburg's list of the top ten moments of the fall sports season. What will it be? One of our sports teams exacted revenge for a losing-streak dating back four years…