ABILENE - Abilene Christian soccer survived a first-half McNeese attack bolstered by a constant 19 mile per hour wind coming out of the southeast, and then scored twice with the breeze at their backs in the second period en route to a critical 2-1 win Sunday at Elmer Gray Stadium.
Junior
Chloe Fifer scored the game-winner on an 82nd minute penalty kick that was awarded on a McNeese handball inside the six-yard box. Senior defender
Kelsie Roberts also scored her team-leading fourth goal of the season at the start of the 48th minute off assists from senior
Leslie Snider and junior
Chantal Kinsey.
The victory not only evened ACU's overall record at 7-2-2 following a 1-6-1 start, but kept the Wildcats alive for a shot at the Southland Conference's regular-season title with three road matches remaining over the next two weekends. ACU currently stands in second place at 6-1-1 following its homestand sweep of Lamar and McNeese, trailing only Central Arkansas, which improved to 7-0-1 today following its 6-2 win at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
Right behind the Wildcats are 6-2 Stephen F. Austin and Northwestern State. ACU will play its next match at SFA Friday night at 7 p.m., while the Bears start a three-match homestand vs. fifth-place Southeastern Louisiana.
The Wildcats likely felt fortunate to go into the break tied at 0-0 considering how close the Cowgirls (7-8, 3-5 Southland) came to breaking the plane on three separate occassions. Luckily for the home team, two McNeese shots hit the crossbar in the first and 23rd minutes, while another shot by Savannah LaRicci was cleared off the goal line by Roberts in the 11th minute.
Starting goalkeeper
Sydney Newton made three saves to keep her team in the game, but it was while she was making her last stop that she was inadvertently kicked in the head and removed from the game as a precaution. Newton got up under her own power and gave way to
Kelsey Dombrowski, who faced only three shots with one save in the closing 58 minutes.
The Wildcats didn't waste any time in setting up their first scoring opportunity of the second half as they were awarded a corner kick less than two minutes after the whistle. Senior
Natalie Throneberry tapped her short corner pass to Snider, who then sent a cross into the box that was first touched by Kinsey and finished off by Roberts.
All four of Roberts' goals this season have come off corner kicks.
The Wildcats maintained their 1-0 lead for approximately 19 minutes when an unfortunate turnover just outside the Cowgirls' attacking third led to a deep strike from Rachel Palet that hit inside the upper corner of the far post. Palet was assisted by Sara Ortiz.
From there the Wildcats missed wide and had another shot blocked, and another two corner kick attempts came up empty in the 80th and 82nd minutes. But ACU kept pressuring and right as freshman
Samantha Vestal had her shot saved by McNeese goalkeeper Annie Bravenec, the referee stopped play to signal a handball violation and awarded the accompanying penalty kick.
Head coach
Casey Wilson gave the shot to Fifer who has owned the team's best success rate during practice and she delivered a low line drive to the right of Bravenec that snapped the 1-1 tie. Fifer's goal was her third of the season as she now leads the team with 13 points.
McNeese could only get off one shot in the closing nine minutes while the Wildcats had two more of their shots saved by Bravenec, who finished the match with six.
ACU outshot the Cowgirls 16-12 with each team's offense dominant with the wind at their backs. McNeese held a 10-5 shot advantage after the first half, but recorded only two attempts in the second half with zero corner kicks.
