FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – A short-handed Abilene Christian soccer team fought a tough battle against 23rd-ranked Arkansas Sunday at Razorback Field with junior
Dylan Owens scoring ACU's lone goal in a 6-1 loss.
Today's loss dropped ACU's season record to 1-3 while Arkansas, which began the year ranked 17th in the country by the NSCAA, improved to 2-2.
Owens' game-tying strike – off a pass from sophomore
Shay Johnson – came in the 21st minute, as she delivered a bent ball from 25 yards out to the upper 90 of the back post. But enthusiasm along the bench was curbed five minutes later when freshman defender Gabby Symmank was red carded and removed from the match after tangling with a Arkansas forward.
The ACU Soccer twitter feed described the call as 'controversial' and after the match head coach
Casey Wilson added, "Gabby was trying to slow down the girl on the breakaway and each of them was tugging away at each other. This sometimes will result in a card because it's the last line of defense, but then play stopped for a time and the red card appeared."
Wilson, who has been coaching the Wildcats since their 2007 inception, believes this is the first red card his team has received since either the 2008 or 09 season.
The Wildcats did everything possible to stay in the match with only nine position players on the field, but they simply couldn't contain Parker Goins who scored four consecutive goals from the 17th to the 61st minutes. Goins put her side ahead for good in the 33rd minute after tapping a Reid Sibley pass across the goal line, and three minutes out of the break she registered her first collegiate hat trick.
Goins continued to fire shots, finishing the match with eight, and added her fourth and final goal in the 61st minute, beating ACU goalkeeper
Erin Smith in a one-v-one situation from seven yards out.
Razorback Abbi Neece scored from five yard' out to make it a 5-1 game, and then Allie Dunn blooped in a pass from Nayeli Perez to cap the scoring in the 84th minute.
The Wildcats looked to tack on one more goal off an 89th minute corner kick by
Megan Baer, that connected with
Caity Acosta but goalkeeper Rachel Harris grabbed the save – her third of the match.
Smith made eight saves in the contest, lifting her career total to 17.
Owens led all Wildcats with two shots, while Johnson, Acosta,
Christina Arteaga and
Chloe Fifer each had one.
"It was a tough game," said Wilson. "One of the goals going into this game was to connect passes and make better decisions under pressure and I felt we did that the first half. Getting a red card with 65 minutes left in the game is tough to overcome against anyone let alone an SEC team. We didn't quit and are better for it."
ACU returns to action next weekend when they head south Friday to take on Prairie View A&M and then over to Houston, Sunday to take on Texas Southern. Because of the catastrophic rain and flooding experienced by greater Houston this weekend, the possibility exists that the dates, locations and times of these matches may be changed to accommodate both sides, so look for updates on ACUSports.com later this week.
