ABILENE – Freshmen
Christina Arteaga scored her sixth goal of the season in the Abilene Christian's 2-1 loss to Sam Houston State Friday at Elmer Gray Stadium. Her goal, which hit the upper 90 of the near post from about 25 yards back, tied the score at 1-1 early in the second half but a 62nd minute strike by Carlota-Suarez Crespo would prove to be the game-winner.
The loss dropped ACU to 6-10 on the season and 4-5 within the Southland Conference, while the Bearkats evened their season records to 7-7-1 and 4-4-1. More importantly for the Bearkats, their first series victory over the Wildcats moved them one spot ahead of ACU for sixth place in the league standings.
Fortunately for the Wildcats, several other teams behind them in the standings all lost tonight to keep them four points up on ninth-place Southeastern Louisiana with two matches left to play. ACU is at home again Sunday at 1 p.m. for Senior Day vs. Stephen F. Austin and at Incarnate Word next Friday to wrap the regular season.
Only the top eight teams in the Southland qualify for the conference tournament being hosted by Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
Tonight's match in many ways felt like a repeat of previous losses. The Wildcats dominated time of possession, developed more corner-kick opportunities and outshot the opposition by a wide margin only to come up on the wrong end of the scoreboard, and all head coach
Casey Wilson could add was, "It was another tough loss having multiple opportunities to score and not put it in the net."
ACU outshot the Bearkats, 22-9, including 14-3 in the second half when assisted by a 12 mile per hour wind coming out of the southeast. The Wildcats also were given nine corner kicks to only one for Sam Houston. Further frustrating the home team were the eight saves made by Christina Hendershot, in addition to a few shots that rattled the crossbar and posts.
The Wildcats for the most part also played a clean match with only three fouls (nine for SHSU) and one yellow card charged against them, but that first foul proved costly as it led to a 40-45 yard free kick goal by defender Carly English, who drilled a sharp line drive straight over the head and outreached arms of goalkeeper
Rachel Johnson.
The redshirt sophomore was making her first start since an Aug. 27 match vs. North Texas, and finished the first half with two saves. Freshman
Erin Smith then came in at halftime and posted the same stat line as Johnson with two saves and one goal allowed. Both goalkeepers also benefited from an alert defense, which kicked two loose balls out of the goal mouth.
After Johnson made a diving save midway through the first half,
Caity Acosta kicked the ball away from Sam Houston's Sammi Mayock as she was running up to put the Bearkats ahead 2-0. A second Wildcat defender made a similar play on Smith's behalf late in the second half with the Bearkats already ahead 2-1.
Arteaga recorded seven shots to lead the Wildcats with two on target as ACU placed only nine of its 22 shots on goal. Mayock led her side with three shots followed by English and Crespo with two apiece.
English led all players with three points after being credited with the game-winning assist. The junior defender received the ball at the midfield stripe and dribbled ahead several yards before dropping a pass in front of Crespo, who had just slipped in behind a pair of Wildcat defenders before making her dash toward the goal. Crespo's and Smith's legs collided atop the 18-yard box, and the ball rolled right along the ground right into the empty net.
Following the Bearkats' go-ahead goal, ACU only placed three shots on frame but had seven of their nine corner kicks during the final 27 minutes of regulation.
