MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Faulkner put together a total team effort, with 18 Lady Eagles seeing the field, as well as 17 for the visitors, to earn the impressive 2-2 double overtime draw against Alabama State in an all-Montgomery matchup at Billy D. Hilyer Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
The match marked the first time since 2000 that Faulkner hosted and played an NCAA Division 1 school; the last one to travel to Faulkner for a game was Troy, then known as Troy State, who split that 2000 softball doubleheader. The Lady Eagles mustered the tie throughout 110 minutes in the muggy Alabama heat, on artificial turf that can increase the temperature as much as 50-70 degrees at field level, against the defending Southwestern Athletic Conference champions. The Hornets made the national title field after winning the SWAC in the spring before losing in the first round to Penn State. The first tie in the series keeps Faulkner ahead of ASU in the cross-town rivalry's record, amazingly; the former's last win over the Hornets came in 2014, though, as the Lady Eagles were shut out in the last two meetings by a combined 13-0.
The goalkeepers led the teams' efforts, as
Reagan Embry and ASU's Lauriane Castonguay both played stellar games. The latter had nine saves on Faulkner's 11 shots on goal out of 20 total Eagle shots. The freshman from Harvest, Ala., meanwhile, had a career game with 13 saves out of 15 shots on goal for an 0.867 save percentage, topping her record of 11 saves and 78.6% set Friday in the loss to Life. Faulkner's defensive attack stepped up to the occasion, allowing just the 13 attempts out of whopping 41 total shots.
Less than two minutes into the contest, the Eagles were almost given an own goal off a
Klara Ebert corner kick, but the ball barely went wide of the net. Then, in the 3rd minute, another near miss occurred when
Faith Pelletier-King fired a shot, the first of six on the day by the Canadian forward, which barely missed the mark by hitting the crossbar. After two Embry saves, the Lady Eagles scored first in the 17th minute.
Kassidy Taylor, just three and a half minutes after checking in, hit pay dirt on a beautiful curler from about 35 yards out for the redshirt freshman's second career goal. The Lady Eagles could not celebrate for long, however, as the Hornets swarmed down the field and equalized it 38 seconds later on Isabella Beortegui's strike from the same distance that went off the post and rolled in. Faulkner had a chance to make it a two-score lead in the 23rd minute, as Taylor stole and fed it to Pelletier-King. The latter's shot was batted high of the goalpost on an outstanding play by Castonguay. The Lady Eagles took the lead into halftime when
Annabel Cuthbert forced a turnover 25 yards away from goal. The freshman from England took advantage of the one-on-one opportunity and buried the shot in the back of the netting with just over three minutes left in the half.
As soon as the scoring began, it would end in the 42nd minute of the second half. Camila Jimenez, following assists from Beortegui and Sunny Bowlin-Stacy, kicked it past Embry to tie the game. Faulkner's best chance to go ahead in the half came in the 33rd minute, when
Kaylan McClellan subbed in and Pelletier-King pushed the ball downfield following a throw-in. She found McClellan, who was seemingly onside and would have buried her one-on-one opportunity on a breakaway if not for a late offside call. Embry had six saves and
Kaitlyn Ambrose and
Camila Parada each had blocks in the following 32 minutes to send it to overtime. The defense continued to hold strong in the extra time, as both sides had several bites of the apple but were unable to capitalize.
The Lady Eagles, after surviving such a strong test, head to South Florida for their next two games. They will play a receiving votes St. Thomas squad on Friday before taking on Keiser, the No. 1 team in the country, who is coming off its first loss of the season to No. 2 William Carey. The Lady Eagles stay on the road the next week to open conference play, as they take on William Carey as well before playing Mobile.
