San Marcos, Texas - After some inclement weather from Hurricane Harvey forced the Islanders' match against Texas State to play a day early, the Blue and Green responded promptly with its own wave of offense in its first win of the
Craig Shaw era. The Islanders experienced a 'coming of age' in San Marcos as freshmen played a key part in the team's 2-1 victory, with tallies from first-year athletes
Mariah Ramon and
Katie Lawrence.
After letting the Bobcats trigger three shots in the opening 20 minutes of Thursday night's contest, the Islanders would come back in the latter half of the first with three of their own to get the scoring started. Abbie Deakin recorded her first shot on target of the 2017 season during the 26th, followed by a strike gone wide by
Kayla Gove in the 35th. Ramon's first shot of the night, just two minutes later, would lead to the evening's first goal off a well struck free kick from left centerback
Megan Dodd. Ramon's tally came in just her 20th minute since joining in the fray, as the freshman finished with 58 minutes of play off the bench.
The Islanders would take their first lead of the season into the break, and continue their impressive offensive performance into the second. The side's second finish would come during the 62nd. With Gove beating her mark and making a run down the left sideline, forward
Katie Lawrence found herself in open space near the top of the six-yard box to bury a well-paced delivery from her first-year teammate.
Texas State would bounce back just a minute later with its own set-piece goal, as the remainder of the half would get increasingly more physical. Both sides combined for 14 fouls in the latter 45 minutes alone, as the Bobcats and Islanders each finished with a yellow card in the second. The home club's aggressive play in the contest would be its ultimate undoing as Corpus Christi created multiple chances on their 15 available spot kicks. Three of the team's nine shots would come off of free kicks alone, with a fourth coming off an Islanders' corner.
- Kayla Gove registered a team-high, and career-high, three shots against the Bobcats, while recording her first assist since coming to the Island
- Ramon and Lawrence's tallies are both the first of their career, while Lawrence made her first start at the college level
- Keeper Abbie Flax brought her season save total up to nine, on the way to stopping four of five shots on net from Texas State
- After Thursday night's effort Alexis Urch has played all 180 minutes of the regular season, competing in her first two matches since 2014
- With their win against the Bobcats, the Islanders have gone 3-1-1 when scoring two goals in a single match since the start of the 2016 season
- Head Coach Craig Shaw started six freshmen on the evening, in comparison to Texas State's three
COMING UP NEXT
The Islanders will experience a pair of days off before playing in their next scheduled match at UTRGV this Sunday. The two teams are slated to play at 7 PM in Edinburg, for the first leg of the 2017 South Texas Showdown.
STAY SOCIAL
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- Go Islanders -
