BEAUMONT, Texas – The Lamar University women's soccer team scored the first four goals of the night as they went on to score five in a 5-1 victory over Louisiana-Lafayette on Sunday night at the LU Soccer Complex. LU had five different players score in the match.
 
"We started a little shaky as they (ULL) had an opportunity to go ahead 1-0 early in the match," remarked head coach Steve Holeman. "What a great goal by Lucy (Ashworth) to bury it in the top left corner of the net and that gave us momentum for the rest of the half. We have gotten better each time out this season. We faced some adversity in the game as we went a player down tonight and we fought hard and continued to battle and scored two goals being down a player."
 
LU outshot the Ragin' Cajuns 18-13 in the match and 8-6 on shots on goal. LU recorded five saves in the contest. This is the second straight victory for LU in the series against Louisiana-Lafayette.
 
The Ragin' Cajuns came out early and had a scoring chance 30 seconds into the game, but the Cards Jocelyn Hanrath made the save keeping the game scoreless.
 
Over the next 15 minutes of the game, Big Reds offense came on fire. With 39 minutes left in the first half, Esther Okoronkwo found Lucy Ashworth on the top right corner of the box. Ashworth fired a shot that went to the upper left corner of the goal and beat the Ragin' Cajun goalie putting LU ahead, 1-0.
 
Five minutes later, Louisiana-Lafayette was called for a foul in the box. Sophia Manibo lined up for the penalty kick and scored extending the Cards lead to 2-0. Lamar was not done adding to the scoreboard in the first half as with 14 minutes left in the half, Madison Ledet found a loose ball and beat the Ragin' Cajun goalie extending the lead to 3-0, which was the lead LU would take into halftime.
 
Early in the second half, the Cards were called for a red card and would have to play a man down the rest of the contest. Two minutes following the red card, LU went ahead 4-0 when Anna Loftus found Okoronkwo who scored growing the Cards lead to 4-0.
 
Leading 4-0, the Ragin' Cajuns got on the board with 15-minute left in the contest when Madysin Girouard found Karleen Bedre for a goal trimming the lead down to 4-1.
 
Eleven minutes later, LU grew its lead back to four goals. Kaisa Juvonen found Okoronkwo on a pass. Okoronkwo then found Meg Sheppard in the box who beat the goalie extending the Cards lead to 5-1.
 
Louisiana-Lafayette had one more scoring chance, but LU came away with a save. LU earned its first win of the season on Sunday with a 5-1 victory over Louisiana-Lafayette.
 
Big Red returns to the pitch on Thursday, Aug. 29 when they host Southern Miss. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. from the LU Soccer Complex. This will be the second matchup between the two schools and the first since Sept. 9, 2016.