No. 2 Northwestern State’s Golden Goal Punches Ticket to Championship Match
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CONWAY, Ark. – No. 2 Northwestern State secured a spot in Sunday’s Southland Conference Soccer Tournament championship match with a 1-0 win over No. 6 McNeese on Friday evening. Freshman Olivia Draguisevich scored the game-winning goal in the 98
th minute for the Lady Demons.
NSU’s Norma Trejo issued a textbook cross into the box for Rachel Brandt, whose one-timer was stopped by Cowgirls’ goalie Emma Roccaforte. The ball fell right to the feet of Draguisevich, who had a wide-open goal to score on.
In a scoreless first half, the first dangerous chance came in the 21
st minute, when Rachel Palet squared up on the ball and fired one to the upper left corner that was punched away by NSU goalkeeper Acelya Aydogmus.
The Demons threatened just before half as Nicole Henry’s ball into the box connected with Trejo, whose shot was deflected out for a corner kick. On the set piece, Draguicevich attempted header went just wide of the frame.
Aydogmus made a pair of dazzling saves in the second period, with the first coming in the 59
th minute when she dove to her right to stop Palet’s free kick. The second came 14 minutes later as a free ball found Kiana Kukaua on the back side, but her volley went right at Aydogmus.
NSU responded eight minutes later with Trejo drilling one that was on its way to sneak underneath the crossbar before Roccaforte got a hand on it.
The Lady Demons will face the winner of top-seeded Lamar and No. 5 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in Sunday’s title match at 1:05 p.m.