Late Penalty Kick Dooms Ladyjacks at Home, 1-0

Friday, September 22

Nacogdoches, Texas

7:00 p.m.

Stephen F. Austin

4-5

Houston Baptist

2-4-1

HBU

SFA

Late Penalty Kick Dooms Ladyjacks at Home, 1-0

9/22/2017 10:03:00 PM | Women's Soccer

Box Score

By: Kevin Meyer | Assistant Director of Athletic Media Relations

NACOGDOCHES, Texas – After 90 minutes of play, it was not the team that led in shots and possession that walked off the field with a victory at SFA Soccer Field on Friday night. A penalty kick awarded to Houston Baptist in the 67^th minute of play proved to be the difference maker in a frustrating 1-0 loss for Stephen F. Austin women's soccer on their home pitch in the second match of the conference season. The loss drops the Ladyjacks to 4-5 overall, 1-1 in conference and 2-2 at home.

"There was some good soccer played tonight", SFA head coach Wally Crittenden said. "It's important to realize that possession has a purpose, and that purpose is to get the ball in the box, get shots and force saves, and it also helps us rest. I thought we did a pretty good job in possession, I thought we had some good ideas on the attack, but when you aren't taking as many shots as you should, it makes for this continual flow of game play, and you can get stretched out of your formation."

In carrying on a trend that has continued for them all season long, Houston Baptist was outshot by their opponent. The Huskies have yielded an advantage in shots to every opponent, often by double-digit margins, but were able to convert on their best scoring chance of the night when awarded the PK. Friday night, the margin of shots was 6-3 in favor of SFA at the half, and 14-8 in favor of the home squad at the final whistle.

While the Huskies backline had struggled all season to stop opposing offenses, the Ladyjacks themselves seemed out of sync on the offensive end, narrowly missing connections on attacking runs and missing the chances to put the ball in the net when the opportunities presented themselves. SFA did put nine shots on frame in the contest, all of which resulted in saves by HBU goalkeeper Alanis Guevara. Katelyn Termini, Madison Hall and Katie Jennings paced SFA with three shots apiece, while Hanna Barker, Mari Gillespie and Breanna Moore each had quality looks on goal that were either saved by Guevara or narrowly missed the goal.

"It's frustrating for sure, but you just need to stay focused, keep moving forward and be prepared to play the soccer that you're built to play next time", Crittenden added. "We've got to hit the field and get back to training because we have another good team coming in here on Sunday."

Despite the result, the Ladyjacks held their own defensively, limiting the Huskies to just one shot on goal in the game. Houston Baptist fired off a total of eight shots in the contest, six of which were off-target. The lone blemish was the penalty in the box in the 67^th minute, which ultimately proved to be the deciding score.

"Ultimately, you don't give up a PK if you don't let the ball in the box, and if we're possessing and scoring goals as we are built to do, maybe that ball never gets into the box in that moment. At the end of the day, we limited their corners, which is a strength of theirs. It's unfortunate that we weren't able to catch a few breaks that could've iced the game for us, but that's how it goes, it's still early and everyone's looking to take advantage of their opportunities."

The Ladyjacks return to action on Sunday, as they host the Islanders of Texas A & M Corpus Christi at 1:00 p.m.

-SFA-