LSUA can’t keep up with North Texas in loss
PINEVILLE—The LSUA women’s soccer team stood right with Division I powerhouse North Texas through one half, but ultimately fell to 7-0 Sunday evening at Wildcat Field.
The game had to be rescheduled to Louisiana College due to the recent storm that hit the South.
LSUA (0-2) hung with the Mean Green early, thwarting early chances from the visitors, and even creating one themselves.
In the seventh minute, LSUA freshman speedster Hannah Carter had a chance to give the Generals the lead to begin the match, but her shot from the left side of the box went wide left and the game remained scoreless.
UNT (1-0) began its season putting significant pressure on the Generals defense. In 2019, the Mean Green went 15-6-1 and earned a trip to the NCAA Tournament.
“We played an NCAA Division I team, which is a top 30 team in the nation and have won seven consecutive conference championships,” LSUA Women’s Head Soccer Coach Michel Poropat said. That is no small task.
“With the weather situation, it impaired out ability to train this past week. We definitely will take some lessons from this match. Hats off to UNT. We will get back to work this week as we prepare for conference play.”
After putting pressure on the LSUA defense for the first 10 minutes of the game, the Mean Green finally broke through. Taylor Hunter got loose and booted one past Generals goalkeeper Erica Rey.
Despite giving up the goal, Rey acquitted herself well against the high-powered Mean Green. She faced seven shots on goal and 10 total, stopping six shots and giving up just the one goal in more than 30 minutes of action.
Overall, UNT attempted 42 shots, with 24 of them being on frame, compared to two and one, respectively, for the Generals.
LSUA looked as though it was going to trail just 1-0 going into the break, but with less than three minutes left in the half, UNT’s Berklee Peters booted the ball from outside of the box and placed it perfectly over the outstretched arm of new goalkeeper Alyssa Andrea to increase the lead.
But with all that happened in the first half, LSUA still only trailed by two going into halftime. LSUA was outshot in the first half 16-1.
In the second half, LSUA ran into a buzz saw. In the final 32 minutes of action, the Mean Green scored five times, including scoring two goals within two minutes of time on two occasions, including once less than a minute apart.
Taylor Hunter began the second half scoring surge with a shot from in close off a corner kick from Madi Starrett.
Ten minutes later, Allie Byrd sent one into the back of the net, and less than two minutes later, Elle Marie DeFrain shot one in after a nifty pass from Peters.
Andrea made 11 saves overall, including several impressive saves. UNT had a chance for another goal late, but she stoned UNT’s Taylor Tufts just as the clock was about to expire.
LSUA begins conference action Saturday afternoon when it travels to in-state rival LSU-Shreveport. The Generals next home game is March 4 when they welcome Texas A&M-Texarkana to the Generals Soccer Field.
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