CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi soccer team earned its first win of Southland Conference play on Thursday evening, scoring in the first half and putting together an excellent defensive effort late to secure a 1-0 victory over Southeastern Louisiana.
It was a tale of two halves in the stat sheet, with the Islanders (4-5-3, 1-2-1 SLC) coming out and dominating the opening 45 minutes to the tune of nine total shots against just two on the other side and four corner kicks against one from the visitors. In the second stanza, though, the Lady Lions (5-6-1, 1-3-0 SLC) flipped the script in a big way, outshooting the hosts by a nearly identical mark of 9-1 while drawing four corners themselves. Despite this, the blue and green were able to hold firm, staving off a couple late chances to earn the hard-fought win.
"Tonight the team completed the 90!" Islanders head coach
Daniel Clitnovici said. "That's what the focus was leading up to the game. We played well in all our first three conference contests and just didn't get the results we deserved. Tonight, they earned a good win against a good opponent. I'm very proud of them!"
The pressure from A&M-Corpus Christi came right out of the gates, with the team earning a pair of corner kicks in the first four minutes and attempting the first shot of the game on a try from
Averi Scruggs in the fifth minute. This attack would continue with some more tries at net as the half progressed, leading up to the chance that the team would put home for the first and only score of the night. After earning a corner kick in the 33
rd minute,
Natalie Taylor lifted a pass into the box that found
Katie Porter, who headed it just past both the keeper and the last line of defense for the go-ahead goal.
For Porter, this marked her second goal of the three-match homestand, with her first coming last Thursday in a 1-1 draw against UTRGV. It was also her seventh overall on the season, moving her into a tie with Megan Guy for the fourth-most in a single season in program history.
Porter's goal took the Islanders into the break, and once the teams returned to the pitch, it was the Lady Lions that upped their own aggression in a big way, working their way into two corners and a shot that bounded off the crossbar all in just the first five minutes. A shot over the crossbar on a free kick and one on a run to the left side of the field that was saved by keeper
Addie Brown would follow not long after, at which point the hosts managed to cool things off for a little bit.
With the half reaching its latter portion, Southeastern tried to get a rally started once again, first with a pair of shots around 20 minutes to go that sailed over the bar. They then tried to force the issue even more but were turned back by a stout Islanders defense, which regained possession multiple times and managed to bleed out much of the remaining clock. A late Lady Lions foul set them up with a free kick in plus territory, and after the try, they were able to run things out to a favorable conclusion.
A&M-Corpus Christi's backline ended up being the star of the show on the night, securing the team's third shutout of the season and first since accomplishing the feat in back-to-back contests against Texas A&M International and Prairie View A&M back on August 16 and 23. In net, Brown logged the first solo shutout of her career, doing so by recording a pair of saves and controlling the box well all night long. Offensively, Porter led the way with her goal and two shots on net, while Scruggs and
Grace Clay joined her with three and two shots respectively.
The Islanders will now take the weekend off before hitting the road once again next week, traveling to San Antonio to take on UIW on October 8 at 6:30 p.m.
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