MOBILE, Ala. ? South Alabama women’s soccer team got off to a good start in Sun Belt Conference play, blanking Arkansas-Little Rock 4-0 at The Cage, Friday night, improving their record to 3-6 on the season and 1-0 in conference play. UALR drops to 2-6 and 0-1 in the conference.
“We’re starting to get healthy and you can see the effect of that,” said Jaguar head coach Mike Varga. “We played with a lot of energy, especially in the first fifteen minutes of the first half. When more people get healthy, it allows me to move players to spots that I feel more comfortable with them in. It’s paid dividends with her (Stocker) playing up top.”
Freshman Sam Stocker scored the first of her two goals just 13 minutes into the match, after receiving a pass from junior Kelly Tarrant. Stocker’s first touch put her in alone, where she found the empty net. Her second goal came just a minute later as she took a pass from freshman Sam Slover and fired a 20 yard shot into the top right corner giving the Jags a 2-0 lead. The two goals made up Stocker’s fourth and fifth goals of the season.
Sophomore Carly Williams opened the scoring in the second half in the 80th minute receiving a pass from Stocker and firing a shot into the bottom, right corner of the goal. In the 87th minute Trojan goalkeeper Ashley Boccarossa bobbled a free kick taken by freshman Amanda Douglas. Freshman Tiara Smith took advantage of the dropped ball and scored her first career goal.
Sophomore Kelsie Langford collected her 10th career shutout making five saves. South Alabama over powered the Trojans, out-shooting them 15-8.
The Jaguars are back in action Sunday, Sept. 24 as they host Arkansas State at 1 p.m. at The Cage.
