South Alabama soccer won a pair of overtime matches on the road over the weekend, beating Texas State 1-0 on Friday and Appalachian State 2-1 on Sunday to extend its unbeaten streak to 11 matches and tie the school record.
The Jaguars are 10-0-1 over their last 11 matches and improved to 12-2-1 overall and 4-0-1 in the Sun Belt Conference. Sunday’s win was South Alabama’s third straight in overtime.
Hannah Wins It in San Marcos
Freshman Charde Hannah scored in the first overtime period, in the 98th minute, to give South Alabama a 1-0 win over Texas State in San Marcos, Texas, on Friday night.
Freshman Rio Hardy assisted on the goal, which Hannah struck from the top of the box just inside the right post.
South Alabama outshot the Bobcats 24-10, though each team had four shots on goal. Texas State entered the match with the Sun Belt’s best defensive record, having allowed 10 goals with a 0.91 goals-against average.
Sophomore goalkeeper Sarah Hay made four saves for her sixth clean sheet of the season. Three of her saves came in the first half, and the Jaguar defense did not allow Texas State a shot on goal after halftime.
“I thought we did well tonight,” South Alabama head coach Graham Winkworth said after the Texas State match. “We’ve started to erase the silly errors at the back. We needed a cleansheet and I’m happy we got one tonight. I’m also proud of how over the last two games we’ve stepped up our play in overtime. That brave attitude finally got rewarded tonight.”
Winkworth praised the winning strike and the player who scored it.
“It was a great goal,” Winkworth said. “She played it along the 18 (yard box) and put another screamer into the net. She’s a handful and people could double or triple team her, but the good thing is, when teams do that, it opens up space for other players. We’re not a one-player team; we have a lot of talent on this roster. She’s obviously one of the very talented players on the team and is on form. She gets a lot of chances because she works hard for them and she’s playing with talented players.”
Rabsatt-Smith Scores Twice at Appalachian State
After a day off Saturday, South Alabama traveled to Appalachian State and won 2-1 in overtime behind two goals from junior Nini Rabsatt-Smith.
After a scoreless first half, Rabsatt-Smith put the Jaguars ahead in the 58th minute. Freshman Danielle Henley played a through ball to Rabsatt-Smith, who dribbled around the goalkeeper to score her third goal of the season.
Appalachian State tied the match 13 minutes later when Logan White found Jane Cline in the box.
Rabsatt-Smith won it less than five minutes into overtime, scoring at the 94:32 mark on an assist from Rio Hardy.
Hay made five saves and allowed one goal. Appalachian State fell to 6-8 overall and 3-2 in conference play.
“It wasn’t pretty,” Winkworth said. “Appalachian State are a team that is all about intensity, workrate and passion, so I told my team that they’ll have to go in and match that today and we did. We were able to show the same signs that they were and were fortunate enough to get a couple of goals that way. Nini was on the end of a couple and it was a nice way to end the game and the weekend.”
“It shows the character we’ve got because it’s difficult, particularly when you’ve been leading in games and you’re pulled back and go into extra time; it’s a massive mental challenge,” Winkworth said. “For us to be able to pull ourselves back up and finish the game is great.”
“What I really want to emphasize, is we have quality players for different types of games,” he said. “In certain games we have to play in a technical way and we have the players to break teams down. Today, other players had to come in and battle a little bit more.”
Alone Atop the Sun Belt
With Georgia Southern’s loss to Georgia State, South Alabama moved into sole possession of first place in the Sun Belt with its 4-0-1 conference record. Georgia Southern and Texas State are tied for second at 4-1.
Home Stretch
South Alabama has four matches remaining in the regular season, starting with two at home. The Jaguars host Georgia Southern at 7 p.m. Friday and Georgia State at 1 p.m. Sunday at The Cage in Mobile.
