» By ANTHONY SHINGLER – ashingler@my.apsu.edu
The Lady Govs soccer team opened the first two weeks of the Ohio Valley Conference slate dropping the first three games in the two-week season.
But Sunday, Oct. 3, Tatiana Ariza put an end to that with two goals in the remaining 12 minutes for the first OVC win of the season, 2-1, over Murray State.
The Lady Govs improved to 7-5 overall; 1-2 in the OVC. The score knotted at 1-1, and the game in its dying moments with an attack on the Murray State goal, Joceline Quiceno was taken down inside the penalty box, giving the Lady Govs an opportunity in the 89th minute.
The Lady Govs turned to phenom Ariza, where she blasted into the back of the net for the 2-1 win.
Ariza’s first goal came in the 78th minute when she drew a foul inside the penalty area.
“It was a good match for us against a really good team,” head coach Kelley Guth said in a Sports Information Press Release. “Murray State is a physical team and we’re not any better off health-wise coming out of this game than we were going in. We needed this win to shift some momentum in our direction.”
The two goals by Ariza also snapped her goalless streak of three games.
Not only did they snap a losing streak but Ariza posted her fourth multi-goal game and leads the Lady Govs with 13 goals and she scored in every Lady Govs win this season.
Murray State jumped out to an early lead in the fifth minute on a Julie Mooney goal for the 1-0 lead.
“Our team gritted it out at the end,” Guth said. “We gave up the early goal again, and that was disappointing. We played a good second half and showed some resiliency today.”
The Lady Govs will take a break and return to action on Friday, Oct. 14, at Jacksonville State.
“This week off is going to be very important for us,” Guth said. “We’re going to use it trying to get some players healthy and getting ready to play hard down the stretch. Every conference game is a battle and we have to be ready for that.” TAS
