YouTube: Adrian Blewitt |
YouTube: Quin WilkesLITTLE ROCK – It took 23 tries, but the Little Rock soccer team eventually found a way to beat Brooke-Lynn Scroggins.
Shannon Shields scored a goal off a rebound from a shot by
Quin Wilkes on the Trojans' 23rd shot of the night, leading to a 1-0 victory over visiting ULM at the Coleman Sports & Recreation Complex on Friday night.
The victory moved the Trojans up to third place in the Sun Belt Conference standings with four games left to play.
Little Rock (7-5-3, 2-1-2 Sun Belt Conference) fired shot after shot at Scroggins throughout the contest, and the keeper for ULM (6-9-1, 0-5-0) made 10 total saves to keep the game scoreless. But in the 78th minute, the Trojans finally broke through.
Wilkes took a ball from a teammate outside the penalty area and fired toward the left post, but Scroggins knocked the ball out of the air wide. Shields was in the perfect place, though, sliding into the rebound and directing it into the empty net. The goal was Shields' team-leading sixth of the season and capped off a game that Little Rock dominated in the first half.
In the first 45 minutes, the Trojans managed 16 shots total and eight on goal, keeping Scroggins busy early. The Warhawks, meanwhile, did not test Trojan keeper
Sara Small until the second half.
Despite all those shots in the first half to go along with three corner kicks, ULM kept the score tied going into the break. And after the second half began, the game was much more even and open.
The Warhawks nearly scored first in the 67th minute when Karlea Fehr took a shot from the right side that Small parried away from the net. But Mariah Mitchell found the rebound at her feet and had a wide open net to shoot at. Instead of burying the ball for a 1-0 lead, Mitchell shot it off the right post, preserving the scoreless tie.
Eleven minutes later, the Trojans had their game-winner.
Small came up large in the second half, saving six Warhawks shots. Amanda Borstelmann nearly scored on a head from a corner kick early in the period, but Small dove to her right and hit the ball away while slamming into the post with her body. Small also earned two saves in 35 seconds against Fehr and Jenna Pillon in the 60th minute.
The shutout was the third in a row for Small, and she now has an active shutout streak of 315 minutes.
Little Rock has now won three consecutive contests against ULM, and Friday was the team's first win at home against ULM since 2011.
The Trojans took just three shots on goal in the second half but had eight shots total to the Warhawks' 11.
The Trojans are right back in action on Sunday, playing host to Louisiana at 1 p.m. at the Coleman Sports & Recreation Complex.
