NATCHITOCHES –
Cassandra Briscoe knocked in two goals for the Northwestern State soccer team, but Southeastern Louisiana's Bri Singh scored the golden goal to give NSU a 3-2 loss in overtime Sunday afternoon at the Lady Demon Soccer Complex in Southland Conference action.
Singh scored in the 91
st minute from the lower right corner when the ball slipped through the NSU goalkeeper
Alex Latham's hands and bounced all the way to the back of the net. The goal improved SLU to 12-4 overall and 5-3 in league play, and NSU fell to 4-12-1 overall and 1-7-1 in the Southland Conference.
Briscoe tied the match twice, first in the 65
th minute and then in the 85
th minute. Her first goal was on a penalty kick after Southeastern Louisiana was called for fouling
Esdeina Gonzalez in the box.
Her second goal hit the top post and took one bounce to the back of the net, and the assist was credited to Cache Haley. It was Briscoe's fourth goal of the year and Haley's second assist on the season.
"They get a goal to go up 1-0 and we battle back to make it 1-1, and then they go up 2-1 and we battle back to make it 2-2," said head coach
George Van Linder. "It's just a testament for our team and what our players have done in dealing with adversity and moving forward.
"Early in the year I'm not sure this team could've done that. Sometimes the adversity and tough times would get us down," said Van Linder. "We really came back and fought hard, and we like that about our team."
Cheyenne Maxwell broke open the game in the 20
th minute on an assist from Jen Babcock. She slipped a shot inside the lower left corner. Gisenia Utreras made it 2-1 in the 80
th minute on a penalty kick after NSU was called for a foul in the box.
Both teams finished with 17 shots in the match, and SLU led with 11 shots on-goal to nine from NSU. All three corner kicks in the match were awarded to NSU.
Latham had eight saves in the match and SLU keeper Casey Jeanfreau finished with seven.
Briscoe led all players with eight shots in the game and five were on goal.
Camila Ardila added three for NSU and
Julia Ranalli and
Nikki Saunders each had two. Gonzalez and
Payton Roney added one.
NSU does not return to the pitch for 12 days when it hosts Incarnate Word on Halloween. It wraps up the regular season two days later with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.