ABILENE - The Wildcats earned a hard-fought 2-1 victory over Prairie View A&M tonight at Lady Panther Soccer Field, improving their unbeaten streak to five games and pushing their record to 2-0-3. The Wildcats set the tone early, with forward Peyton Hill scoring 48 seconds into the match, assisted by Chayse Thorn. This early strike gave ACU a 1-0 advantage and marked Hill's first goal of the season.
Despite ACU's early momentum, Prairie View quickly responded in the 12th minute to level the score at 1-1. The Wildcats applied pressure throughout the first half, generating 10 shots.
In the second half, ACU maintained its attacking edge, and their efforts paid off when Chayse Thorn scored her first goal of the season, assisted by Taylor Sarver, to give the Wildcats a 2-1 lead. ACU's defense held strong in the final 30 minutes, thwarting several Prairie View attempts to equalize.
"It's great that we are scoring early and it was a beautiful goal by Peyton," said head coach Stephen Salas. "There was some great team build up that left to a strong strike in the bottom corner from distance. This set the tone early in what we've been working on in making an impact right away and being focused."
In total, ACU outshot Prairie View 17-6, with 13 of those shots being on target. The Wildcats also earned six corner kicks.
ACU has another road match against Houston Christian on Sept. 8 at 1 p.m.
"We've battled through close road tests which builds into our resiliency," said Salas. "We know HCU is going to be another tough one. Our staff has been speaking into our focus of team defending and team attacking. The bond that each player has for one another and this team continues to grow, especially towards our greater mission."
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