Soccer snags two more key victories
Bobcats rally to top Lander, 2-1, smash West Ga. to move to 2-0 in PBC play
The GCSU soccer team extended its winning streak to three on Wednesday when they slipped by Lander University in a 2-1 comeback victory.
Both teams started the game playing aggressively in the wet and rainy weather conditions. Although both teams fought hard, it was the Bearcats who first took the lead when 18 minutes into the game, Lander’s Christin Moss with an assist from Rachel Datz, placed a shot into the back of the Bobcats net to take a 1-0 lead.
Even though GCSU attempted many shots, they were unable to score in the first 45 minutes, and halftime arrived with the Bobcats trailing Lander 0-1. Lander outshot the Bobcats 10-7 in the first half.
Quentin Hendrix | gcsunade.comFreshman Haley O’Hayer defender gets ready to clear the ball out in the Bobcats 4-0 victory over West Ga. Sept. 25. The Bobcats followed up with a 2-1 victory over Lander on Wednesday, extending their winning streak to three games and improving their PBC record to 2-0 and 5-3 overall.
When the second half began, GCSU continued to play aggressively in an attempt to catch up and less than two minutes in, the Bobcats evened the score when freshman midfielder Brittaney Borror scored off of a cross pass three yards out in front of the goal to tie the score at 1-1. Borror’s second goal of the season was assisted by freshman forward Katie Taylor.
“Our greatest strength was our motivation and our ambition in the first ten minutes of the second half,” Borror said. “Now we need to work on the times when we do score, to keep scoring, we usually just score a few times and then stop.”
Less than 10 minutes after GCSU scored their first goal, they managed to take the lead when senior defender/midfielder Kayla Emerson was able to put a shot past the Bearcats’s goalie and into the net from a fast breakaway assist from Borror to give the Bobcats a 2-1 lead that would hold up.
“It’s pretty exciting, we came out hard and we were ready for this win since last year,” Emerson said. “I think the team’s coming along great, from the beginning to now it’s definitely picked up a lot. We definitely are becoming more of a team now and playing well together.”
Last Saturday, the Bobcats had their second home shutout victory in a row when they defeated the University of West Georgia 4-0.
GCSU wasted no time taking control of the game when just 2:01 into the game, Borror scored the first goal of the game unassisted, giving the Bobcats a 1-0 lead. This was Borror’s first goal of the season.
When 16:50 had passed in the first half, GCSU struck again when junior midfielder/forward Megan McAlpin, with an assist from Borror, was able to score her first goal of the season when she placed a shot over West Georgia’s goalie and into the back of their net to set to make it 2-0.
“I felt that we came out there and we did what we needed to do early,” McAlpin said. “We came out strong so I feel really confident and I am excited for this win.”
The Bobcats did not let up on the Wolves and when 32 minutes had passed in the first half, sophomore forward Anna Wierzbicki was just inside midfield and with an assist from junior midfielder Karen Bonilla, she landed a shot off of a free kick into the back of the net, making the score 3-0.
When less than 10 minutes remained in the first half, the Bobcats secured a four-goal cushion when freshman midfielder Taylor Yee took a shot and got the ball under West Georgia’s diving goalie to give GCSU a 4-0 lead going into halftime.
“We had a lot of opportunities and it’s good that we were able to put it away,” Yee said. “A big thing for us is being able to put our opponents away in the first half and that’s what we did so we accomplished what we had to do.”
The Bobcats are at home on Oct. 6 as they take on Armstrong Atlantic at 6:30 p.m.
“I think we need to work on just finishing our opportunities. We’re getting a lot of opportunities every single game but we’re not finishing those opportunities,” head coach Hope Clark said. “We’ve got a good little stretch coming up until we play next week on Wednesday so we’re going to some transitions and some one v. one work.”
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