HAMMOND, La. – Southeastern Louisiana continued its strong start to the 2014 season, and toppled the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi women's soccer team 3-1 on Friday in the conference opener for both teams. The Lions (8-1-0, 1-0-0 Southland) and Islanders (1-3-2, 0-1-0) each converted penalty kicks during the second half of the contest.
The Lions and their top offense in the conference got goals from three different players, as leading scorer Bri Singh found the back of the net in the first half, and Gisenia Utreras scored twice in the second half for Southeastern Louisiana. Yvette Franco finished off a penalty kick for the Islanders' only tally. Megan Delaney posted seven saves in a losing effort for A&M-Corpus Christi.
"We really have to work on our focus in the opening 45 minutes," head coach Shanna Caldwell said. "The girls were pumped up and excited but the mental focus was not enough, and it cost us. The second half was much better, and we took more chances. I'm really excited that Yvette was able to capitalize and convert her penalty kick.
"Now we turn around and go to work against a strong Nicholls team," she added.
Singh got things started in the 14th minute with her league-leading 10th tally of the season. Katie Noonan played a nice through ball ahead to Singh, and she converted at 13:28 to put the home squad up 1-0. The score remained that way all the way to halftime, with the Lions maintaining the one-goal edge.
Southeastern pushed the advantage to 2-0 on Utreras' second goal of the season in the 53rd. Noonan sent in a cross deep into the box, and Utreras was able to finish it off at the 52:07 mark.
But the Islanders got on the board after a hard challenge in the box brought Franco down. She was awarded a penalty, and calmly delivered the ball into the back of the net at 62:30 to cut the advantage to 2-1.
The joy was short-lived, though, as a scrum in the Islanders' defensive box resulted in the awarding of a penalty kick to the Lions as well. Southeastern sent Utreras to the stripe, and she put it home for her third goal of the season and second of the game at 66:50. The Islanders were unable to crack the scoreboard after that, and the game ended in a 3-1 result in favor of the home squad.
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi will be back in action on Sunday afternoon, as they travel to Thibodaux for a matchup with Nicholls at 1 p.m. Updates will be provided as they become available on the official Twitter feed of Islanders Soccer (@IslandersSoccer).
