Limauro's lucky charm makes difference in OT win

YPSILANTI - Jessica Limauro's good luck charm is beaten and battered.

A stuffed Snoopy that's been at her side since she was three days old, he's seen better days.

Limauro's mom, Robin, wasn't allowed to sew Snoopy's ear or eye back on.

It'd ruin his luck, she was told. And the way Limauro's been playing of late, he definitely won't be getting his mouth back.

So maybe being a little battered is a good thing.

The Michigan soccer team didn't get quite that battered in yesterday's 2-1 overtime victory over Eastern Michigan, but, like Snoopy, they took their lumps.

And maybe there's a few more bruises than after a normal game, but there's one more mark in the win column.

Thanks to Snoopy, and six goals from Limauro, Michigan (5-0) is off to its best start ever.

The two armies tugged, pulled, yanked, smacked, bumped, bruised, tripped, elbowed and tackled each other for 95 minutes and 16 seconds yesterday.

Which didn't leave much time for soccer.

"It got crazy at times," senior defender Carrie Brady said.

Nearly every time two players would approach each other, they somehow found a way to make contact that was, well, more than incidental.

And more than usual for a collegiate soccer match.

Eastern's coach, Paul Scicluna, who has coached several Wolverines in club soccer, "knows we'd like not to be touched," senior Vanessa Lewis said.

But her attitude is "If you touch me, I'll touch you back," she said.

For the most part, Lewis, as a defender, doesn't usually bear the brunt of any 'touching.' Neither do goalies.

Opposing forwards who chase down a loose ball near a goalie usually defer to the keeper and fall out of the way if the goalie has the ball and a collision is imminent.

But early in the first half, Michigan goalie Jessica Jones received no such treatment.

"She went out for a save," Lewis said, "but she got an extra kick in there."

Jones stayed in the game, but late in the half she tried to jump to catch an arcing kick.

The ball slapped her hands, and spun over them, into the goal.

Sophomore Carissa Stewart played the second half, and Jones limped around the sidelines after the game in pain.

"Cheap shot," said Lewis.

"The whole game was one-on-one basically," said forward Jessica Limauro, who scored the game winning goal for Michigan.

"It was aggressive," said Scicluna, who said he tries to preach a high-pressure, but not a violent or dirty, game.

"It's not Europe," Scicluna said, explaining that none of the aggression deteriorated into open violence.

As the saying goes, it takes two, and not only blue jerseys were being yanked.

But to hear some Michigan players tell it, only the blue jerseys were being called.

"I thought (the officiating) was really one-sided." Lewis said, and some of the parents in the stands agreed, and shared these sentiments with the officials who made the calls - and everyone else at the game.

One of the parents said this years' game was " a lot milder" than last year's slugfest.

But "I think it was just dirty," Brady said.

09-16-98