Stephen F. Austin
Prairie View A&M
SFA Blasts Prairie View
9/28/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Sept. 28, 2008
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - The Stephen F. Austin Ladyjack soccer team set a new record for goals in a single game and tied the existing mark for margin of victory Sunday, as SFA notched a 10-2 win over Prairie View A&M. Seven different SFA players scored goals, led by Brenna Crockett's hat trick and two goals from Megan Cash.
The offensive explosion took SFA's goals per game average from 0.71 to 1.88 and wrapped up the Ladyjacks' non-conference slate with a 3-5-0 record. Prairie View falls to 1-9-1 with the defeat.
"We were excited to put some goals on the board," SFA head coach George Van Linder said. "The goals they scored were a reminder that we can't lose our focus and must pay attention to all the details of the game."
The Panthers opened strong to take a 2-0 lead in the game's first four minutes. A free kick from 40 yards out rattled off the cross bar and was put home by Claudia Martinez at the 1:49 mark to open the scoring. Prairie View got a second goal at the 3:35 mark, when Amanda Collins broke in on SFA goalkeeper Courtney Bauder and, taking advantage of some brief hesitation on Bauder's part, beat her low and to the left.
SFA answered quickly. Senior Amanda Alders took a feed from Brittney Barker and fired a shot into the back of the net at the 6:13 mark to get the Ladyjacks on the board. It was the first goal of the season for Alders, SFA's career leader in goals and points.
The Ladyjacks found the net again just 20 seconds later, this time off the foot of Cash, a junior. Senior Lauren Fricks sent a long ball into the box, where Cash was waiting to tuck it in from eight yards out, tying the score.
Following the two Prairie View goals, SFA did not allow another shot on goal in the half and gave up just one shot, period. But the Ladyjacks were far from finished scoring.
The next player to get in on the act was sophomore transfer Camille Royer. Cash started the play when she chased a long ball down into the far right corner then delivered a nice centering pass to Royer in the box. Royer's aim from close range was true, giving SFA the lead at the 14:33 mark. The goal was her first this season.
Cash posted her second goal of the game -- and the season --in the 21st minute when she headed home a beautiful crossing pass from Alders, who had run down a ball deep in the corner before turning it back toward the middle. Cash's header clanked off the cross bar and dropped straight down behind the Panther 'keeper, giving her the first multi-goal game of her career.
Crockett, a junior, scored next, heading home the first of her three goals on a corner kick by senior Summer Bradfield in the 34th minute. That goal gave SFA a 5-2 edge, and the Ladyjacks carried that advantage into the intermission.
SFA outshot Prairie View, 25-3, in the opening frame, including 16 shots on goal.
The Ladyjacks changed goalkeepers for the second half, bringing in junior Crystin Pactor to replace Bauder, but not much else altered, as they piled on with five more goals.
Freshman Micaela Manley opened the second-half scoring in the 60th minute, when she headed in a long cross from Crockett to make it a 6-2 game.
Sophomore Kesia Broome connected just 83 seconds later, when she finished off a nice ball through the box by classmate Kim Kimmel.
Freshman Janae Lee added a third goal in less than a five-minute span when she broke free behind the defense and juked the goalkeeper before rolling a shot into an empty net at the 64:25 mark.
Crockett's other two goals came late in the contest off rebounded shots. The first was in the 73rd minute, when freshman Ashley Dick launched a shot that couldn't be corralled by the Prairie View goalkeeper. Two Panthers took a swipe at clearing the ball before Crockett easily slipped a shot into the empty net.
Less than two minutes later, she polished off the hat trick when she headed home a carom on a Kelli Barnes shot that found the cross bar.
The three goals were Crockett's first of the season and, combined with her assist, moved her into the team lead for points with eight. Coming into Sunday's game, she had just two career goals and no assists and had never posted a multi-goal game. The hat trick was just the eighth in SFA history and the first since former Ladyjack Erika Palmacci scored three goals last season in a 7-0 win over Nicholls State. Crockett's seven points tied her for third on the single-game ledger at SFA.
The previous team record for goals in a single game was eight, recorded in an 8-0 win over Nicholls State in 1998. That game is also tied with Sunday's for the widest margin of victory in program history.
SFA finished with a 53-4 advantage in shots and a 26-3 edge in shots on goal.
Bauder (3-4-0) took the win in 45 minutes of work. Pactor posted one save in the second half.
SFA will open Southland Conference play and defense of its 2007 SLC championship next weekend. The Ladyjacks are scheduled to travel to Hammond, La., on Friday to take on Southeastern Louisiana. The game is set for a 4:30 p.m. start. SFA will then take on Nicholls State in Thibodaux, La., on Sunday, with that contest slated to begin at 1 p.m.
-- SFA --
