Marshall University Athletics
@HerdWSoccer Blanks UAB for Second Conference USA Win
10/7/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
HUNTINGTON, W.Va.-The Marshall women's soccer team (4-5-3, 2-2-1 C-USA) picked up its second Conference USA win of the season, defeating the UAB Blazers (4-7-1, 1-3-1 C-USA), 1-0, Friday evening at Hoops Family Field.
Shontelle Smith scored the lone goal for the Herd in the 17th minute. The goal was Smith's first game-winning goal of the season. Sydney Arnold and Jordan Sackaris provided assists on Smith's goal. Goalkeeper Megan Bonelli made three saves to pick up her second win of the season and her first career shutout.
The Herd controlled the momentum in the first half, taking six shots in the half. Five of the Herd's six shots were on goal. Marshall took the first corner kick of the game in just the second minute. Shots by Mack Moore and Jordan Parkhurst in the first 15 minutes tested Kelsey Daugherty, but the UAB goalkeeper saved both Herd attempts. Smith scored her fourth goal of the season in the 17th minute, taking a pass from Arnold and making a move before slotting her shot past Daugherty and into the bottom right corner of the net, giving the Herd an early 1-0 lead. The Blazers did not take their first shot on goal until the 37th minute, when Marin Carter's shot was saved by Bonelli. Arnold had a shot on goal just two minutes later that was saved by Daugherty.
UAB wasted no time in testing Bonelli in the second half, taking just 24 seconds to put a shot on goal. Megan Hudgens' shot was saved by Bonelli for her second save of the match. The Herd continued to pressure Daugherty with shots, taking ten in the second half. Ashley Seltzer and Sackaris each had shots go wide in the first seven minutes of the half. UAB did not take its first corner kick until the 78th minute of the match. Rachel Green's shot was saved by Bonelli in the 79th minute in what ended up being UAB's final shot on goal. The Herd was able to run out the clock and earn a 1-0 shutout win.
COACH'S CORNER
Head Coach Kevin Long:
"We made a change before we went to Louisiana defensively and unfortunately that meant taking some attacking players and putting them in the back, but long term what that meant was we wanted to be more technically sound in the back end. We are starting to see that now. They are getting better at communicating and working a little more together."
"Tonight we saw much more organization and better unified defensive unit in the back and it was against a good UAB team. I think they had an interesting plan in how they wanted to attack us but it allowed us to have numbers in the back for much of the game and that helped us as well."
"We knew that both home games are important. We wanted to get six points out of this homestand. We haven't played at home enough as the year has gone on so these six points are important. First three got accomplished today. The big part was if you look at the standings we were tied for that eighth spot with three teams and we are looking at it thinking we are right on the cusp of getting into the tournament. We have played the top two teams of the conference so we are looking at it saying 'we are okay'. We just need to take care of our business and that started today."
#STAMPEDE16
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UP NEXT
The Herd stays home to face Middle Tennessee Sunday, Oct. 9, at 2 p.m. Marshall is 2-1-0 in the all-time series against the Blue Raiders.
---HerdZone.com---
