ABILENE – The Abilene Christian defense allowed just nine shots and junior midfielder
Maria Gomez punched in a 19-yard free kick for the match's lone goal, leading the Wildcats to a 1-0 decision over Southland Conference rival Central Arkansas on a beautiful Sunday afternoon at Elmer Gray Stadium.
The victory lifted ACU's overall and conference records to 4-7-2 and 3-1-1, while the Bears fell to 6-7 and 3-2, snapping a three-match winning streak that included a 6-1 win over Lamar.
ACU outshot UCA 10-8 in the first half, made some adjustments at the break, and then held the visitors to only one shot and a single corner kick over the final 45 minutes. The consecutive shutouts were the Wildcats first in Southland competition, and first since blanking Midwestern State and Wayland Baptist on back-to-back dates in September of 2013.
Junior goalkeeper
Sydney Newton was credited with the win behind three saves, but the true heroes were her backline and midfielders who clamped down on one of the league's more prolific offenses. The Bears came into the match averaging 13.9 shots and 1.73 goals per contest, however, they had no answers against center backs
Kelsie Roberts and
Chantal Kinsey and were harassed on the outside flanks by a combination of several players, including junior
Alyssa Gerner, who contributed 71 minutes today after missing Friday's match with an injury.
"Most of our adjustments at halftime had to do with what we were doing with the ball," said head coach
Casey Wilson. "Even though we were up 1-0, I regard UCA as one of the more athletic and dangerous teams in the conference, so we wanted our offense to do a better job of holding onto to the ball and keeping the pressure off our defense … and ultimately, they didn't get the same kind of looks as we did. It was a big win."
UCA's best scoring chance came in the 17th minute when Katie Koch hit the crossbar. The Bears also got off a good shot – a header by Stacia Carroll that sailed high – following one of their four first-half corner kicks.
Newton made the last of her three saves in the 32nd minute.
ACU recorded the first four shots of the match and later had two blocked, while a few more sailed wide and UCA GK Lauren Mecuri saved two. The Wildcats then went 12 minutes without a shot until Gomez lineup up for her free kick with 37 seconds left before halftime.
After one of her teammates was tripped just outside the 18-yard box, Gomez lined up the ball 19 yards away from the net inside the penalty arc before firing a laser to the right of the UCA wall and between Mercuri's glove and the near post.
The goal was Gomez' first of the season and first since delivering an insurance strike in a 3-0 win vs. Nicholls last September.
"I'm happy for Maria," said Wilson, "and it was great to see because she's been playing so well but hadn't scored … so that's always nice. During any minute of the match she could put one away so that was huge for her to come up big for us today."
The second half belonged to the ACU offense even though it couldn't pad their lead any further against Mercuri, who finished the match with eight saves. The Wildcats recorded seven of their 12 second-half shots within the first 10 minutes with Mercuri stopping three of them.
Senior
Lindsey Jones led all players with six shots, while Gomez had four, and two others had three.
UCA's Alex Moore put two of her three shots on frame in 67 minutes of play.
The Wildcats return to action Friday at Houston Baptist, which won last year's Southland Conference tournament title and represented the league at the NCAA Championships.
