SOCCER: Sept. 25 Scoreboard
Central Arkansas 2, McNeese State 1 (2OT)
Houston Baptist 1, Sam Houston State 0
Southeastern Louisiana 7, UIW 1
Abilene Christian 4, Nicholls 1
Lamar 3, Northwestern State 1
Stephen F. Austin 3, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 0
Central Arkansas 2, McNeese State 1 (2OT)
Conway, Ark. – The Central Arkansas Bears returned to Southland Conference play on Friday night, hosting the McNeese State Cowgirls. The Bears led for the majority of the match before McNeese State evened the score with five minutes to play, but Central Arkansas got the golden goal in the second overtime period.
Central Arkansas (4-6, 1-1 SLC) took a 1-0 lead in the 35th minute, when sophomore Dayna Mounie worked her way through the McNeese State (3-5, 0-2 SLC) defense, firing from the edge of the box for her second goal of the season.
The Cowgirls nearly waited too long, but finally found the equalizer in the 85
th minute, when Gabi D’Alesandro played a pass forward to Kayla Goedicke, who beat Central Arkansas keeper Lauren Mercuri in a one-on-one to even the score at 1-1.
Neither team was able to score in the first overtime, but with five minutes to play in the second overtime period, junior Shelby Wilson played a ball down the sideline to freshman Camille Davis, who dribbled into the box and slotted the ball just inside the back post for the game-winner.
Central Arkansas took 13 shots on the day, and put five on goals, led by freshman Ashley Smith, who was on target with all three of her attempts. Making her first start in goal for the Bears, Mercuri made eight saves on the night.
Central Arkansas hosts Lamar on Sunday afternoon, with kickoff set for 1 p.m.
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Houston Baptist 1, Sam Houston State 0
HUNTSVILLE, Texas – Junior Ellee Hall’s first goal of the season was the only scoring Houston Baptist women’s soccer needed as the Huskies shut out Sam Houston State, 1-0, Friday evening at Pritchett Field. With the win, HBU improved to 3-1-0 this season in one-goal affairs.
“It’s nice to get a result from a quality opponent, especially on the road” said HBU head coach Misty Jones. “I’m proud of the fight in the girls. We played a great first half. We really fought hard in the second half and I felt it was a well-deserved win.”
Hall and Autumn Wildung garnered the points for HBU (4-2-1 overall, 2-0-0 SLC). Sabriah Spencer had a match-high four shots and three shots on goal. Katie Turner improved to 3-1-0 on the season as she stopped four shots for her third shutout of the season.
Sam Houston State’s (4-4-1, 1-1-0 SLC) leading scorer, Mariah Titus, led the Bearkats with two shots, both on goal. Kylie Hambleton stopped four shots in the losing effort.
Hall gave the Huskies the lead with a goal just eight minutes left in the opening half, as she scooped up a rebound off a shot off the post from Wildung.
The Huskies outshot the Bearkats, 6-2, in the opening half, as each team had a corner.
The Huskies’ defense played spectacularly in the second half. Turner made some fantastic saves to keep the Huskies in the lead. Rebekah Tovar read a free kick perfectly, disallowing SHSU to get a scoring chance.
The Bearkats came inches close of tying the match with eight minutes remaining in regulation as Maddy Panozzo’s shot went over the cross bar. The Bearkats had one last opportunity with a corner kick in the 86th minute, but to no avail.
SHSU outshot the Huskies in the second half, 4-3, but HBU had the upper hand in the match, 9-6. The Bearkats had three of the half’s four corners for a 4-2 advantage in the match.
HBU plays at Stephen F. Austin Sunday at 1 pm. The match will be shown live on ESPN3.
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Southeastern Louisiana 7, UIW 1
HAMMOND, La.
– Southeastern Louisiana senior Gisenia Utreras posted her first career hat trick to fuel a 7-1 Lady Lion victory over Incarnate Word in Southland Conference women’s soccer action Friday night at Strawberry Stadium.
Southeastern (7-1-1, 2-0 Southland) ran its current win streak to three matches and extended its unbeaten streak to six with Friday’s runaway win. Incarnate Word dropped to 2-8 overall and 0-2 in league play.
Utreras led the Southeastern attack with three goals and added an assist. Freshman Sofia Olsson added a goal and an assist, while sophomore Maggie Ramsey, junior Bri Singh and freshman Vanessa Arzaluz also found the net. Senior Kayla Vera, senior Maddie Allen, sophomore Lauren Babcock, sophomore Ana Zadro and sophomore Kim Porche were also credited with assists for SLU in its highest scoring output of the 2015 season.
Utreras’ big night was the latest in a breakout senior season for the Brampton, Ontario, Canada native. Through the season’s first nine matches, Utreras leads the team with seven goals and seven assists.
Utreras’ hat trick was the 26th in school history, but the first by a Lady Lion since Maiya Cooper and Kelsey Salcido each posted three goals in a 9-0 win over Grambling on Sept. 18, 2011. Salcido was one of the approximately 40 former student-athletes who were honored at halftime as part of the kickoff of Alumni Weekend.
Southeastern wasted no time taking the lead for good in the 10th minute. Vera played a ball ahead from just across midfield that Olsson was able to run down and beat UIW senior goalkeeper Karly Brightwell for a 1-0 lead. The goal was the third of the season for the Lysekil, Sweden native.
SLU added to its lead in the 18
th minute. A UIW foul resulted in an Utreras free kick from just outside the box. Utreras put the shot on frame, but Brightwell turned it away. However, Ramsey was right there to put in the deflection and give the Lady Lions a 2-0 advantage with her fourth goal of the season.
In the 26th minute, Allen played a ball through that Utreras was able to deposit in the back of the net for a commanding 3-0 lead.
Singh would close out the first half scoring less than 10 minutes later. The Lancaster, California native took a pass from Zadro and scored her third goal of the season to put the Lady Lions up, 4-0, heading into halftime.
The highlight of the night led to the second half’s first goal and a 5-0 Lady Lion lead. Babcock tossed an inbounds pass to Olsson, who with a defender on her back and facing away from the goal, played a backward pass to Utreras, who rifled a shot in from the right side of the net.
Olsson’s aggression led to Southeastern’s next goal. After beating a UIW defender, she had a clear path to the goal, but was taken down from behind. The foul led to a Lady Lion penalty kick, which Utreras easily deposited into the upper right corner of the net for a 6-0 Southeastern cushion.
Incarnate Word avoided the shutout in the 67th minute. Freshman Sabrina Martineau lobbed a shot from 25 yards out that sailed over a leaping Hope Sabadash to cut the Southeastern margin to 6-1.
Arzaluz closed out the scoring in the 86
th minute. Porche beat a UIW defender and played a ball through to Arzaluz and the Sparks, Nevada native scored her third goal of the season to provide the final 7-1 margin. The seven goals were the most SLU has scored against a Southland Conference opponent since a 10-0 win over Nicholls State on Oct. 23, 1998.
Southeastern will look to continue its roll on Sunday, when it closes out Alumni Weekend with a 1 p.m. match versus Abilene Christian at Strawberry Stadium. Any former Southeastern players in attendance will be recognized at halftime. Admission to all Southeastern home soccer matches is free.
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Abilene Christian 4, Nicholls 1
THIBODAUX, La. - Freshman striker Dylan Owens scored a goal and provided two assists to help ignite Abilene Christian's 4-1 come-from-behind victory at the Nicholls Soccer Complex Friday afternoon in Southland Conference action.
Owens hammered home a cross from senior Lindsey Jones in the 42nd minute to tie the match at 1-1, and in the second half peppered goalkeeper Amanda Boylson with two hot shots that were punched back in by teammates Chelsea Reedy ('66) and Sophie Standifer ('88).
ACU (2-6-2, 1-0-1 Southland) has won its last two decisions vs. the Colonels (2-5-1, 0-2-2 Southland) by a combined score of 7-1. The four goals today also represent ACU's highest scoring output in any Southland Conference match and its most in any conference game since blanking Texas Woman's 4-0 in October of 2012.
Jones' goal, which was her third of the season, held up as the game-winner after taking a pass from Standifer and firing it under the left side of Boylson, who faced a total of 20 shots (12 in the second half) and made 11 saves.
Reedy's and Owens' goals were the first of their collegiate careers, and Standifer's was her third. Owens additionally put all five of her shots on frame in just 44 minutes of play as the Wildcats overall had 15 of 20 shots on goal.
Owens' four-point performance was the Wildcats' first of the season and first since Baylee Mitchell scored twice vs. UT Pan American last season. Owens also was the first Wildcat with two assists in a single match since junior Alyssa Gerner delivered a pair in ACU's 3-0 win over Northwestern State last Oct. 10.
The Wildcats limited Nicholls to 13 shots and three corner kicks, defensively, while junior goalkeeper Sydney Newton came away with eight saves. All-conference forward Spencer Valdespino led her side with four shots and placed two on goal.
The Wildcats return to action Sunday at 1 p.m. against Southeastern Louisiana.
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Lamar 3, Northwestern State 1
NATCHITOCHES, La. – Lauren Lovejoy matched her career high with nine saves to lead the Lamar University women’s soccer team to a 3-1 win over host Northwestern State in a Southland Conference game Friday night.
Lovejoy made a number of acrobatic saves as the Cardinals (6-5-0 overall, 2-0-0 Southland) opened conference play with back-to-back wins for the first time since 2011.
Lovejoy was especially busy in the second half, as Northwestern State (3-5-2, 0-1-1) pulled out all of the stops in attempting to battle back from a 2-0 halftime deficit.
M.J. Eckart opened the scoring for LU with 18:53 remaining in the first half when she took a pass from Mari Olastuen directly in front of the goal and blasted a shot that snuck in under the crossbar over the outstretched hands of Northwestern State goalkeeper Brooke Bourbonais. It was the second goal of the season for Eckart, and the seventh assist for Olastuen, who extended her LU single-season record.
Juliana Ocampo increased the LU lead to 2-0 with 3:54 remaining in the first half on a nifty solo effort. Ocampo raced down the left side and chipped the ball over a diving Bourbonais for her third goal of the campaign.
Northwestern State came out determined at the start of the second half, cut the LU lead to 2-1 less than 10 minutes into the second half when Jacqueline Manza rocketed a shot into the far upper corner on a shot Lovejoy had no chance on.
The Cardinals seemed to settle down after that, and increased the lead to 3-1 with 16:24 remaining in the second half when Jordan Mulnix pounced on a loose ball in the box and deposited past Northwestern State goalkeeper Alex Latham, who replaced Bourbonais at halftime. It was the seventh goal of the season for Mulnix.
The Cardinals will stay in Natchitoches on Friday night before departing for Conway, Ark., on Saturday morning for Sunday’s 1 p.m. conference game at Central Arkansas. The team will p4ractice in Conway on Saturday.
LU will leave Conway following Sunday’s game as the Cardinals return home to prepare for conference home games against Stephen F. Austin at 7 p.m. Oct. 2 and Sam Houston State at 1 p.m. Oct. 4.
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Stephen F. Austin 3, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 0
NACOGDOCHES, Texas – An early second half scoring barrage, led by midfielders Amanda Doyle and Madison Hall, was all the Stephen F. Austin women’s soccer team needed to put away Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Friday night at SFA Soccer Field. The Ladyjacks scored three goals in the first 9:09 of the second half and held on to win 3-0 to improve to 1-0-1 in the Southland Conference and 2-6-1 overall.
Doyle scored two goals and assisted on another to lead SFA on the night, while Hall notched her first goal of the season. The Ladyjacks were in control throughout, outshooting the Islanders (0-6-2, 0-1-1 SLC) by a margin of 17-7. SFA doubled Corpus Christi up with an 8-4 surplus in shots on goal and a 6-3 cushion in corners.
The Ladyjacks exploded out of the halftime break, getting on the board just 47 seconds into the period. Doyle found space down the right side of the field and whipped in a perfect cross that found Hall at the back post. After sprinting down the field to get into position, Hall went all out to slide and tuck away her first goal in an SFA uniform.
The hustle play sparked the Ladyjacks as Doyle was able to find the back of the net just three minutes later. The junior collected a loose ball in the box, turned and drilled a shot just inside the left post. The goal came after sophomore forward Hanna Barker drove a ball into the heart of the box on a corner. Sophomore midfielder Chloe Fowler fired a shot that rebounded to Doyle’s feet.
Doyle buried her second goal of the night, and third in two games, in the 55th minute off another corner kick. This time, Hall sent in a dangerous ball from the left corner spot with senior midfielder Rachel Owens keeping the play alive with a shot after the service. Doyle once again put herself in position to collect the rebound and bury it past the Islander keeper.
The Ladyjacks overwhelmed the Islanders out of the gate, controlling possession and playing nearly every minute in the attacking half. Despite owning a 9-1 advantage in shots over the first 45 minutes, SFA went into the half with the game level at 0-0.
Much of the SFA attack flowed through Barker during the evening. Of her five shots in the game, four went on goal. Chantal Curry and Kelly Ann Craig each got a shot off from their outside back positions to aid in the attack as well.
Goalkeepers Lillie Ehlert and Allyson Smith combined for SFA’s second shutout of the season with a total of four saves in the game.
The Ladyjacks will return to SFA Soccer Field on Sunday afternoon at 1:00 p.m. for a rematch of the 2014 Southland Conference Tournament final against Houston Baptist. It will be one of SFA’s ‘Dog Days Out’ promotions, as all dogs are welcome to attend with in-game giveaways courtesy of Petsense.
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