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KENNESAW, Ga. – Despite scoring the game’s first goal, the Kennesaw State soccer team could not keep East Tennessee State off the scoreboard in the second half, falling 3-1 on Friday night at KSU Stadium.
“I thought first half we did not play very well,” said Head Coach
Rob King. “We really did not connect our passes at all and we looked panicky. The ball was like a hot potato and we banged it down the field, which is not what we were trying to do. That was not the game plan. So to be tied at half time, I thought we were quite fortunate. [At half time] we spoke about possessing the ball, connecting on our passes and we did a much better job at that in the second half. We generate a lot of chances. Obviously we ended up outshooting them, but mainly through a good second half performance. We had several balls in the box and their keeper came up big on a save or two, but a lot of balls just trickled past the post instead of inside the post. We were disappointed that we were not able to execute on everything we created in the second half, but overall there was a lot to be taken from the second half.”
KSU falls to 4-6-1 on the season and 0-1-1 in the Atlantic Sun Conference, while ETSU improves to 8-3-0 and 2-1-0 in league action.
The Owls opened the scoring as sophomore midfielder
Nicole Calder tallied her first goal of the season, and second career score, in the 14th minute of the match. After a brilliant save on a point-blank shot from senior goalkeeper
Melissa Hutto (Pensacola, Fla./South Alabama), KSU earned a free kick from 45 yards out on the right flank. Redshirt-sophomore defender
Jewelia Strickland (Fayetteville, Ga./Alabama) delivered the ball into the six-yard box, where Calder rose up and headed the ball into the bottom right corner.
ETSU responded with the equalizer just eight minutes later on the Bucs’ fourth corner of the match, taken by Samantha Kron. Ramey Kerns found the back of the net on a rebound from an Ellis Parsons header shot, passing the ball into the goal from two feet out after Hutto made a finger tips save on Parsons’ header.
With only 20 minutes remaining in the match, ETSU notched the game-winner on one of the Bucs’10 corners in the match. Kron found Jasmin Dutton at the back of the six-yard box, who then shot the ball into the right corner. Junior defender
Tasia Williams (Waldorf, Md./Auburn) appeared to have stopped the shot on the goal line, but an assistant referee called the ball over the line for an ETSU score.
The Bucs pushed their lead to 3-1 in the 81st minute as Morgan Thomas crossed the ball from the left flank into the 18-yard box to a waiting Sarah Zadrazil, who finished the ball into the back of the net.
KSU outshot East Tennessee State 15 to 17, but only posted four shots on frame to the Bucs’ eight. Calder led all players with seven shots, with one on goal, while redshirt-sophomore forward
Katrina Frost (Fayetteville, Ga./South Carolina) tallied three shots, with two on goal. Kerns recorded five shots for ETSU, with two on frame and Zadrazil added four shots, with two on goal.
The Owls earned six corner kicks in the contest, but gave up 10 to ETSU.
Hutto registered five saves in the match, while Kara Krajenta collected three.
Kennesaw State wraps up its four-match home stand on Sunday, Sept. 20, when the Owls host USC Upstate in a 1 p.m. contest at KSU Stadium.
Keep up with Owls soccer this year by following KSU on Twitter at @
KSUOwlNation and @
ksuOWLSsoccer, or by liking Kennesaw State Owls on
Facebook.
Kennesaw State University is celebrating 30 years of intercollegiate athletics during the 2012-13 academic year.
