Aug. 29, 2008

Box Score

MOBILE, Ala. - Jaguar forward Brandi Smith posted a hat trick for South Alabama as the Colonel soccer team fell 3-1 Friday night at The Cage.

The Colonels (2-1) got one goal off the foot of sophomore Allison Mylius (Baton Rouge, La./Woodlawn)

"I thought, overall, it was a pretty good game," said head coach Cindy Piper. "Both teams came out physical at the start."

South Alabama took a 1-0 advantage in the sixth minute as Brandi Smith knocked the ball past Colonel keeper Molly Mersereau (Riverside, Calif./Riverside) on a ricochet off a shot from Tiara Smith.

The Jaguars doubled their lead in the 20th minute as Smith bagged her second goal of the night, putting one into the back left corner of the net from across the field on an assist from Anna Ellingsen.

Just before the halftime break Mylius cut the Jaguar lead in half with a shot from nearly forty yards outside the net dead into the center of the goal to put Nicholls on the board.

"Our back line is young, but they held their own and that was great to see," Piper noted. "It was nice to see Allison Mylius come in and hit a forty-yard shot at the end of the first half. Those are the times that are fun to watch. She played hard tonight, so she deserved to score the goal."

Nicholls held South Alabama scoreless through 44 minutes in the second half until, in the 89th minute, Smith made her third goal of the night, shooting a pass from Kristin Sutton across the field into the back left corner of the net and giving the Jaguars a final 3-1 edge.

Mersereau posted 16 saves in the contest, including fending off 10 Jaguar shots on goal in the second half.

"We knew we were going to get tested in the back," added Piper. "We knew that they were going to play balls on the top and that they had extremely good speed all the way through, so we knew Molly [Mersereau] was going to see a lot of shots tonight. We probably have one of the best goalkeepers in the conference. She definitely proved it tonight, facing break-away after break-away. Any time we have a keeper that we are confident in, it allows us to push forward a little bit.

South Alabama took 19 shots on goal, while the Colonels had just one shot squared up.

"We made the changes we needed to make at halftime and had multiple opportunities to score in the second half," Piper said, "we just couldn't put one in the back of the net. I'm disappointed in the loss, but I'm not disappointed in our effort and how we played. It was hard to stay focused with everything going on around us, so this was a tough environment, but I think we did well and I'm proud of the way we played."

The Colonels will return to the pitch on Sept. 5, traveling to Itta Bena, Miss., to face Mississippi Valley State. Sunday's match at Troy has been rescheduled for Sept. 9 due to impending weather from Hurricane Gustav.

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