Despite allowing the first goal just minutes into the match, the No. 22 John Brown women's soccer team used a pair of goals from sophomore Braydi Frederick and another pair from unlikely sources to score a 4-2 victory over Oklahoma Wesleyan (2-4-0) Saturday night at Alumni Field, capping off a 2-0 weekend at the JBU Invitational.
Frederick pieced together a special weekend, finishing with nine points in two games. She opened the scoring for John Brown (3-1-1) in the 16th minute and earned her second-consecutive game-winner in the 51st minute.
"This was just another fun game and these young women are simply a joy to be around," head coach Kathleen Paulsen said after the win. "I think we've grown a lot over the last week. The exciting part is I think we still have a lot of room to continue to grow. We look forward to that process and will continue to find what we did well and what can we do better. We celebrated some great moments tonight, but tomorrow starts the preparation for Tuesday's match."
JBU renewed its rivalry with former Sooner Athletic Conference opponent Rogers State (Claremore, Okla.) on Tuesday. Results were not available at presstime.
After Wesleyan posted a goal just 3:16 into the match, sophomore midfielder Savannah Beth capitalized on an errant OKWU goal kick in the midfield. Beth quickly sent the ball up to Frederick on the right flank, who then cut into the middle before letting go a left-footed blast inside the box. The 16th-minute goal knotted the game at one apiece, easing early tensions at Alumni Field.
The first half was played fairly close with John Brown holding a 7-5 shooting advantage over the guests. As the stanza drew to a close, a pair of substitutes made Wesleyan pay in the 44th minute.
Off a broken play, senior midfielder Chloe Fennell sent a cross into the middle from the right flank. In not unusual fashion, the cross found the feet of Frederick in the box, who was immediately challenged by an aggressive Wesleyan goalkeeper. Without an angle, JBU's leading scorer one-touched the cross onto junior midfielder Nicole Kosin, who was completing her run to the far post. Kosin tapped in the go-ahead goal, her first of the season, handing the Golden Eagles its first lead of the contest.
It wasn't long into the second half before Frederick left her mark on the match for a second time. This time, in the 51st minute, senior midfielder Casey O'Brien shot up the right flank with possession of the ball. Her feed up ahead connected with Frederick who, similar to her first goal, cut in from the right side into the middle, this time faking out a defender and keeper Lauren Mohamed, before sailing a shot into the empty net for JBU's third tally of the match.
The Eagles wouldn't go away quietly, however, as Ana Popov earned her second goal of the match just six minutes later to pull the visitors back to within one, 3-2.
John Brown continued its offensive attack to the tune of 14 shots in the second half, allowing nine towards junior netminder Kristen Morency. After entering the match in the 70th minute, senior striker Laura Garcia finally connected on her fourth attempt of the game in the 89th minute.
Garcia picked up her first goal of the season as a result of an excellent through ball by freshman midfielder Sara Frey. Frey's pass split a pair of Wesleyan defenders as Garcia ran in from the right flank to collect the pass. Garcia broke in on Mohamed alone, and ripped a shot to the low, right post, giving the Golden Eagles the insurance needed to wrap up the match.
Frederick paced JBU with seven shots, four on target, while Garcia's four attempts and sophomore midfielder Sara Lachance's three tries sent John Brown to a 21-14 shooting advantage for the contest.
Morency (3-1-1) collected a trio of saves in the victory while Mohamed (2-4-0) made four stops in the loss for Wesleyan.
Sports on 09/17/2014