By Berry Aldridge, Staff Writer
The Armstrong State University women’s soccer team has been defined this year by their stout defense and perseverance through adversity. However, this week the Pirates switched gears and took on the offensive with an outburst of 14 goals all in Peach Belt Conference play. Keepers Erica Laurens and Morgan Luckie did not allowing a single goal in either game.
Armstrong kicked off the week Wednesday with a 7-0 win over USC-Aiken in Aiken, SC. Sophomore Amanda Green and senior Taylor Valley notched the first two goals in the 14th and 16th minutes respectively.
Leading scorer Jenny Allen then tallied two quick goals in the 23rd and 26th minutes to increase the Armstrong advantage to 4-0, giving her eight goals on the season.
Pirate freshman, Taylor Snell and Martha Trimbach finished the scoring for the first half. It was Snell’s first collegiate goal and Trimbach’s second. Valley scored once more in the second half to push the score to 7-0 Pirates.
“Think we gained a lot of confidence these past two games, especially with our goal production,” Valley said. “We are getting goals from a lot of different players and that is a great thing. We are excited to play the next two games of the regular season and even more excited to get into tournament play.”
Armstrong hoped to keep their offensive momentum rolling Saturday when GA Southwestern rolled into Savannah for another PBC contest. Junior Sarah Olin kicked off the scoring frenzy with two goals just nine minutes into the game, 57 seconds apart and both from Green crosses.
Trimbach then picked up her second goal of the week and third of her career in the 42nd minute after netting a pass from junior Kailey Goins. The score was 3-0 in favor of the Pirates at halftime.
The offensive momentum would again steamroll out of the locker room. Allen picked up her ninth goal of the season in the 50th minute, and junior Erin Berube wrote her name in the record books with a pair of goals just 16 seconds apart. These are the fastest consecutive goals by the same player in Armstrong history, and fourth fastest in all of NCAA Division II.
Freshman Brooke Standard finished off the scoring in the 72nd minute to add to the Pirates lead and push it to 7-0, where it would end for the second time that week.
Armstrong finished with an unbelievable 86 shots for the week, compared to only five shots allowed. Of those 83 shots, 44 were on goal. The two wins equal six important points for the Pirates in PBC standings they and now sit firmly at No. 2 in the conference behind Columbus State University
“We have spent a good amount of our training working on finishing and we scored some good goals this past week,” head coach Eric Faulconer said. “It has been something we have struggled with for some reason this season. If we are going to have continued success here in the later stages of the season we have to keep finishing our chances.”
The Pirates played an important matchup against Flagler Wednesday, Oct 28 and will close out the regular season Saturday, Oct. 31 as they host Lander for Senior Day.