SHREVEPORT, La. - Senior forward Erin's Wright's goal just over two minutes into double
overtime gave Southern Utah University at 3-2 Summit League victory over
Centenary College Sunday afternoon.
Southern Utah used a pair of goals from
sophomore forward Shelby Ostler and Wright's score in the 103rd
minute to improve to 5-9-1 overall and 2-5 in Summit League play. Centenary had
its record fall to 4-12 overall and 1-6 in conference.
"We continued to battle after Centenary hung
tough and evened things up," head coach Brian Stock said of his team's
conference road victory. "Shelby made some nice plays in the box for us today
and Erin finished things off for us to get a conference win."
Ostler gave the Thunderbirds an early lead,
taking a pass from senior defender Allison Thompson and slipping one through
the Centenary keeper for the score at the 23:48 mark. Centenary evened things
up just over then minutes later before the teams went into the half still
knotted at 1-1.
Minutes into the second half Ostler struck
again, receiving a perfectly placed cross from junior midfielder Elyse
Alexander and heading in her fourth goal in the last four matches to give SUU a
2-1 lead. The Lady's a again battled back, scoring in the 71st
minute on a shot that hit the crossbar and bounced in. Despite 17 second-half
shots by the Thunderbirds, the match went into overtime.
The first overtime session saw SUU post a 5-0
shot advantage but Centenary keeper Kalyn Harris stopped all three
shots-on-goal. Wright would give Southern Utah the win just over two minutes
into the final period. Sophomore defender Morgan Bridge took a free kick that
landed in the Centenay box and freshman Sabrina Hernandez headed the ball over
to Wright who finished for the match-winner and her first goal of the season.
Ostler posted her second two-goal performance
of the season while Alexander recorded her team-leading fourth assist and
Hernandez registered her first career point after assisting the match-winner.
The Thunderbirds took a season-high 37 shots,
the third-most in SUU single-match history and posted an 8-3 advantage in
corner kicks. Southern Utah redshirt-sophomore keeper Charly Booth finished
with three saves.
SUU will close out the season with a pair of
home matches, hosting first-place Oakland at 3 p.m. on Thursday before matching
up against IPFW at 2 p.m. on Saturday. Prior to Saturday's season-finale the
Thunderbirds will acknowledge seniors Thompson and Wright.
