Oct. 24, 2008
Natalie Santana tapped in a free kick 2:54 into overtime as Southeastern Louisiana stunned Lamar 2-1 at Cardinal Stadium on Friday.
Lamar drops to 2-10-1 on the year and 0-5-1 in Southland Conference play while SLU improves to 10-4-1 and maintains sixth place in the league with a 4-3-0 mark. The top six teams qualify for the postseason tournament in two weeks.
"Unlucky," said Lamar head coach Dewi Hardman. "We played hard and we created some good opportunities but it's a microcosm of our season in that we fought hard but gave up just one too many chances and it bit us in the end."
SLU came out with a lot of energy and seemed to put as much pressure as possible on the Lamar defenders. The Lady Lions' efforts finally paid off in the 32nd minute when Candice Wallace grabbed an out-of-bounds ball and quickly threw it back into play. Janae Sheldon settled the ball and sent a cross to the left side of the box where Jenna Oney was behind LU goalkeeper Jennifer Gibbs and found the back of the net with a left-footed one-timer. It was her second of the season.
That was the way it stood for the remainder of the half as SLU held a 1-0 lead.
Lamar saw an opening just over ten minutes into the second half when Lisa Hance was battling with a SLU defender down the right side and was fouled inside the box, prompting a penalty kick opportunity. Aline Pugliesi lined up and scored her team-leading fifth goal of the season to tie it at 1-1 at the57:50 mark.
SLU had a couple of solid chances in the final seven minutes to score a game-winner but both times Gibbs came up huge on some 1v1 situations.
A Lamar defender was called for a foul just outside the top corner of the penalty area, prompting a free kick for the Lady Lions. Sheldon put her right foot on the ball and floated it to the left corner of the goal, where Santana touched just enough of the ball to redirect it just inside the left post and give SLU the win.
SLU held a 17-8 edge in shots and a 5-3 margin in corner kicks.
Lamar will play host to Nicholls State on Sunday afternoon. Kickoff is at 2 p.m. at Cardinal Stadium and the program will recognize its first-ever senior class, which consists of Yureli Gomez, Leslie Myers and Aline Pugliesi.
