Oct. 17, 2008

Box Score

THIBODAUX, La. - Central Arkansas' April Davis took advantage of miscommunication by the Colonel defense in the first three minutes of Friday afternoon's soccer match to slide one in the back of the net and give the Bears an early 1-0 lead.

"I thought both teams fought hard today," said head coach Cindy Piper. "Central Arkansas is well-coached and they were ready to go. I thought we came out much stronger than we have in the past few games and I felt like finally we looked like a team."

The Bears would score once more in the second half to defeat Nicholls 2-1 in Southland Conference soccer action at the Colonel Soccer Complex.

In the 73rd minute, sophomore Kaity Mattsson (Bracebridge, Ontario/Bracebridge & Muskoka Lakes Secondary) cut a 2-0 Bear lead in half when she knocked the ball into the goal from the 30 yards out on the left side of the field.

"We were hoping to get a couple more goals," Piper said. "It was nice to see Kaity [Mattsson] get that goal - she hit it solid and the UCA keeper didn't have a chance at it."

The Colonels battled, firing off eight second-half goals, including a shot-on-goal from redshirt freshman Kandice Champagne (Houma, La./Terrebonne).

"I thought the second half was the best half we've played all year and is something for us to build off of," added Piper. "Everyone was involved in the game and excited about the game - the players on the field and the players on the bench - and everyone played as hard as they possibly could. That just goes to show that if we give that effort, we can be a good team and that's what we need."

Freshman Sarah Damen (Houma, La./Terrebonne) spent the full 90 minutes in goal for Nicholls, making five saves and allowing both Central Arkansas goals.

Nicholls will host Northwestern State Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m.

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