ABILENE - Stephen F. Austin held on to first place and undefeated Southland Conference record Sunday thanks to a goal in the 82nd minute that propelled the Ladyjacks to a 1-0 victory over Abilene Christian at Shotwell Stadium.
SFA - winners of the last three Southland regular season titles - improved to 10-2-1 (6-0 SLC) with the victory, while the Wildcats fell to 7-7-1 (4-2-1 SLC) after dropping their first conference home match of the season.
ACU goalkeeper
Sydney Newton made two big stops near the top of the 18-yard box earlier in the second half, including one vs. Chelsea Raymond at the start of the 68th minute. But on the Ladyjacks' next breakaway led by Zuri Prince, the SFA midfielder tapped the ball to Newton's right as she dove forward, leading to an uncontested shot on an empty net.
The goal was Prince's sixth of the year.
From there, the Wildcats would record just one more shot - a blast from
Alyssa Gerner that was caught by goalkeeper Morgan Glick, who made five saves in recording her seventh shutout of the fall.
All five of Glick's saves came in the second half, many of which came right at her on a straight line. The Wildcats also had four of their 12 shots blocked by the SFA defense and watched several more sail high or wide.
ACU also was limited to three corner kicks and created just one shot from those opportunities.
Junior
Lindsey Jones led the Wildcats with three shots, while three others had two as the home team outshot the Ladyjacks, 12-11.
Sophomore
Kelsey Dombrowski faced seven shots in the first half and made two saves as the teams went into halftime deadlocked at 0-0. Of the three Wildcats first-half shots, two were blocked inside the 18-yard line.
The Wildcats return to the road next weekend for Friday and Sunday matches at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Incarnate Word. ACU defeated each of these teams at home last season.
