ABILENE - A constant barrage of second-half shots and corner kicks eventually hit their marks for Abilene Christian soccer as the Wildcats rallied from a goal down to beat Lamar, 2-1, Friday night at Elmer Gray Stadium. Freshman midfielder
Shay Johnson scored the game-winner with nine minutes left in regulation.
The victory lifted ACU's overall and conference records to 6-7-2 and 5-1-1, keeping them in the hunt for the Southland Conference regular-season title as both Stephen F. Austin (5-1) and Northwestern State (5-2) lost 1-0 to Nicholls and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, respectively. Central Arkansas, which tied the Wildcats at 0-0 two weeks ago, remains the only unbeaten conference team at 6-0-1 after holding on to beat Houston Baptist, 1-0.
Lamar fell to 1-12-2 overall and 0-5-2 within the league, but held the lead for the better part of 30 minutes after Jordan Mulnix scored from inside the 18-yard box in the 32nd minute. Mulnix received the ball close to midfield and raced past her defender into the attacking third from where she let loose a tricky roller that skipped past a diving
Sydney Newton, who may have been momentarily screened by an ACU defender and Lamar's Tori Alaniz.
The Cardinals wouldn't take another shot for the rest of the half and fired only one attempt during the second half – which led to Newton's lone save of the match – as ACU controlled possession the rest of the way.
The Wildcats fired off six straight shots in a 10-minute window near the start of the second period and had a couple corner kicks cleared out before finally landing their equalizer in the 67th minute off a
Chloe Fifer short corner kick.
The ball was passed around once or twice before landing at the feet of sophomore striker
Dylan Owens, whose shot at the near post richocheted off the bottom of the crossbar. Luckily for ACU, the ball took a fortunate bounce and senior midfielder
Leslie Snider was there to bury the rebound from inside the six-yard box.
Snider's goal was her third of the season.
The corner kick opportunities continued to present themselves for the Wildcats as they finished the second half with eight and 11 for the match, but the go-ahead goal came during the course of play, as at the very start of the 82nd minute Johnson finished a
Samantha Vestal cross atop the six-yard box. Johnson's strike hit off the knee of a Lamar defender for her third goal of the fall and first in Southland Conference play.
ACU outshot the Cardinals, 26-4, with Fifer leading the way with six shots and three shots on goal. Several other Wildcats placed at least two shots on frame as Lauren Lovejoy finished with nine saves.
The Wildcats return to action Sunday at 1 p.m. vs. McNeese, which is their home finale for the 2016 season. Eight seniors on the Wildcats' roster will be honored during a pregame ceremony.
