The Pirates were unable to pull out two wins this weekend as they easily handled Austin College but were forced to another draw against the University of Dallas Crusaders.
In their first contest against Austin College on Friday, the Pirates wasted no time scoring the first goal of the game. In the first minute of play, Lauren Gradt scored off the assist from Madison Koehn. It wouldn't be long after until Samantha Hazen found the back of the net for her first goal of the season in just the 7' minute. In a lopsided affair, the Pirates shot the ball 31 times throughout the contest and had 14 corner kicks.
Everyone got in on the action as Karlee Holmes recorded her first goal of the season in the 32' minute followed by Nadia Brown in the 39'. As halftime rolled around, Austin College still had not recorded a shot in the first half.
The second half was highlighted by sophomore midfielder Yamila Lara who scored two goals for the Pirates in the 51' and 62' minute. The Pirates went on to win by a margin of 6-0 for their second conference win of the season.
The Pirates have shown the ability to be explosive on offense and possess the ball for numerous minutes at a time, generating more than enough opportunities. However, those opportunities have not always turned out to be goals.
In the case of their match against the University of Dallas, the Pirates had two goals called back because of offsides calls during corner kicks. Each time the ball found the back of the net but the officiating decided the player who scored the goal was offsides.
Mia Reyna scored the first goal of the match in the 13' minute. From the Pirates, corner kick the ball bounced around between players until it found a waiting Reyna higher up in the box. Reyna shot the ball, it went off the goalkeeper and in the goal to make it 1-0.
The Pirates knew that this match would be a tough one with Dallas ranked one spot behind Southwestern in the preseason polls, and later on in the first half, the Crusaders caught the Pirates off guard in an unsettled situation and were able to score to make it 1-1 in the 24' minute. The score going into the half would stay at 1-1.
To emphasize how many chances the Pirates had against the Crusaders, Southwestern had 23 shots against Dallas with 12 of those shots being on the goal forcing the Crusaders to make 11 saves. In comparison, Dallas had only four shots, just one in the second half and just two corner kicks throughout the match.
This has been the case for the Pirates in a few games this season, especially their draws, where they create more offense and dominate time of possession but the opposition finds the back of the net on goals that seem to come from nowhere.
Women's Soccer will have the opportunity to get their first road win of the season this upcoming weekend, traveling to Houston to play the St. Thomas Celts on Friday, September 30th at 7:30 PM and then the Centenary Ladies in Shreveport, Louisiana on Sunday, October 2nd at 1:00 PM
Photo by Carlos Barron