Lady Eagles Advance to W-League Final Four
July 19, 2014 - United Soccer League Championship (USL)
Charlotte Eagles News Release
Charlotte N.C. - The Lady Eagles faced off in the Southeastern Conference Playoffs against the Gulf Coast Texans and took the win in penalty kicks to move on to the W-League Final Four.
The game started off with the Texans dominating possession in the first 30 minutes of play giving the Lady Eagles very few opportunities to get shots on goal. One of the shots looked as if it was going to open up scoring in the 12th minute when Jade got a shot that was tipped out by Texans goalkeeper Sarah Story, Jade got the rebound and put another shot on goal but it went just over the crossbar.
The Texans opened up the scoring in the 17th minute when the Texans got a free kick just outside the box and it was passed just to the right of the wall and Nicole Waters got the pass and took a shot slipping it past Charlotte goalkeeper Robyn Jones. Robin Jones made a number of big saves after the Texans goal to keep the score at 1-0. The Lady Eagles were able to capitalize on an opportunity in the 41st minute when they got a free kick and Renee Hurd from the Texans was given a yellow card resulting in a penalty kick for the Lady Eagles. Leah Fortune took the PK and tripped up Story sliding the ball into the left side to tie up the game.
The game was set to head into halftime tied at one when Macky Wing was able to slip past a Texans defender getting the ball to Fortune who took a shot that was punched away by Story, Summer Lanter was coming up the right side and was able to get the rebound and Story wasn't able to recover in time to stop Lanter's shot. The Lady Eagles headed into halftime leading the Gulf Coast Texans 2-1 despite being outshot 11-4.
Coming back from the half the Texans continued to outshoot the Lady Eagles and evened out the score in the 69th minute when Maria Jose-Rojas got the ball and walked it right past Jones to make the score 2-2. The remainder of the second half stayed scoreless forcing the game into two 15-minute overtimes.
The first overtime period was fought and possession was even between both teams remaining scoreless despite good opportunities on both ends.
In the 17th minute of overtime Molly Drooger got the ball and took a cross that nearly went in but a Texan defender was able to clear it with a header. The second half of overtime ended in a scramble when the Lady Eagles got a good shot off a free kick with 30 seconds remaining and they were almost able to sneak it in the bottom corner but Story was able to smother the shots and keep the shot out ending regulation time and forcing the game to a shootout.
The Eagles were up first in the shootout and Amanda Naeher took the first shot and got it past Story, the shootout continued staying close but the Lady Eagles pulled out a win in PK's 4-3 against Gulf Coast. PK goals came from Naeher, Fortune, Parr, and Etten for the Eagles and Waters, Arlitt, and Hurd for the Texans.
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