Box Score
ABILENE – History was made Sunday afternoon at the Wildcat Soccer Complex as No. 2 Abilene Christian held on to beat West Texas A&M 1-0 and finish the regular at 17-0-1. The 17 victories match the Wildcats' win total from last season, when they went 17-3-1 en route to an NCAA tournament appearance.
Sophomore
Ashley Craig scored the match's lone goal in the 77th minute, and goalkeeper
Elliott London stopped six shots in recording the team's program-tying 10th shutout of the season.
“I told the girls afterward not to discount the fact that this was a special victory and to not walk away from it nonchalantly,” said head coach
Casey Wilson, whose teams are 34-3-2 over the past two seasons. “What they've accomplished is difficult to do in a conference that is tough from top to bottom, and it will be hard to do again. They've raised the bar all the way to the top.”
The two sides engaged in a scoreless first half, combining for 13 shots (six on goal) and three corner kicks, but none of which were slipped past London or Yvette Bedoy. West Texas was especially active on offense following the 23rdminute, during which it fired six of its eight first-half shots, but two were saved by London while another was kicked off the line by an ACU defender following a corner kick.
The second half was largely played within the Wildcats' attacking third as the home team fired 12 shots over a span of 31 minutes before Craig delivered her second goal of the season, a crossing diagonal that zipped over Bedoy's outreached arms and into the side netting. The assist was provided by
Andrea Carpenter, her fourth of the year.
“Andrea did a great job dribbling up the field,” Craig said, “and I just happened to be on the other side of the field where she fed it to me I took one touch and shot it. I would've liked to cross the ball rather than shoot, but it wasn't there and luckily it went in.”
Wilson estimated Craig's strike sailed anywhere from 25 to 30 yards.
“Because of the sheer number of crosses she takes, you know that sooner or later one of them was going to go in,” he said. “She strikes the ball well.”
In trying hard to tie the match, West Texas stormed back with two close-range shots. The first of which, by Leslie Briggs, was stopped by London, and the next by Jessie Thomas sailed wide.
ACU also remained aggressive and nearly took a 2-0 lead on an
Andrea Carpenter shot, but it ricocheted off the crossbar and back into the field of play. During the final 10 minutes, Craig would have a shot blocked, and
Jacey Ferrara was stopped by Bedoy for her ninth and final save of the match.
Briggs, the Lady Buffs' shot leader today with eight, had one last look at the net in the 87th minute but her attempt was saved by London, who improved to 16-0 on the year in recording her sixth individual shutout.
ACU finished the match with a 21-15 advantage in shots, and placed 10 of them on goal.
“It took us a while to get going today, and while we still had a lot of opportunities to score, I felt we weren't as sharp today as we should have been,” Wilson said. “I thought our defense played well though, considering the number of people we had to move around back there and experiment with, but I was pleased with the effort.”
The Wildcats return to action Friday as the top seed at this year's Lone Star Conference Soccer Championship, which runs from Thursday to Sunday at the Wildcat Soccer Pitch.
Quarterfinals begin Thursday at 11 a.m. with #3 Eastern New Mexico facing #6 West Texas A&M followed by the #4/#5 match at 1:30 p.m., pitting A&M-Commerce and Angelo State.
ACU will play in the second semifinal scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Friday. #2 seed Midwestern State will play in the noon match against the winner of the first quarterfinal.
“We know that we have a lot of great teams to play in front of us, but every single time we step on the field we feel that we're capable of winning – we just have to show it.” Craig said. “I feel like today's game was necessary and we needed to work for it. West Texas came out and gave us some great competition.”
The conference championship match is scheduled for Sunday at 1 p.m. Tickets are currently on sale through the championship link provided on ACUSports.com or by calling 325/674-2287.
