HARROGATE, TENN. – Three different Trojans knocked in a goal, headlined by the 99th minute game-winner in overtime by sophomore Megan Foster, to propel Anderson University women's soccer to a key South Atlantic Conference victory over Lincoln Memorial, 3-2 Saturday afternoon at the LMU Soccer Complex.
With the win, the Trojans clinched a spot in the SAC top eight ensuring them a quarterfinal match in the SAC Tournament while moving their record to 8-5-1 overall and 5-4-1 in conference action. The Railspitters fall to 3-8-1 overall and 2-5-1 in SAC play.
After a scoreless opening half, Lincoln Memoiral struck first in the 49th minute when Caroline Souza's pass found its way past the defense to teammate Melissa Carpenter's foot, scoring into the bottom left corner putting the Railspitters up, 1-0.
Junior Lysse Engle brought the Trojans back in the 70th minute when she grabbed a deflection off of senior Tina Shakes. With the ball at her feet, Engle blasted the ball into the back of the net from eight yards out to even the match up at 1-1.
The Railspitters responded in the 73rd minute and retook the lead on a goal by Caroline Souza who took the long cross from Jacquelyn Christoph to score her fourth goal of the season.
Facing its second deficit of the night, the Black and Gold needed just under five minutes for an answer, as Shakes found the long pass from Foster and beat the goalie with a flick just out of the keeper's reach to even the score at 2-2. For Shakes, the goal was her 10th of the season.
The equalizer would eventually send the match into extra time, marking the second time in the last three matches and fourth match of the season to need more than 90 minutes.
The Trojans needed 9 minutes and 48 seconds of the 10 minute overtime to score the game-winner when Shakes flicked the ball back to the middle for Foster who curved the shot into the left corner to help the Black and Gold earn three valuable team points. For Foster, the goal was her second of the season while Shakes was credited with two assists on the night and fourth for the season.
"I am very proud of this team for fighting back each time they went down to get back in the game," Anderson head coach Julie Carlson said. "We played some of the best soccer I've seen from them and were able to really have a lot of the ball to capitalize on our game plan. It was even better having three different players contribute in goal scoring. These were important points and a great response after our loss against Queens. They showed awesome resilience and persistence to play our game and get a win."
Anderson returns to action on Saturday when it host SAC foe Mars Hill for the regular season finale. Kickoff is scheduled for 1 p.m.
