CSU Overcomes Weather in 1-0 Victory over Panthers

CHARLESTON, S.C. - Allison Lewis scored her first goal of the season, placing the ball into the net in the first five minutes of the game and the Buccaneers held off both the lightning and visiting Northern Iowa in their second victory of the season as CSU topped the Panthers on Friday afternoon at the CSU Soccer Field, 1-0.

Lewis accepted a pass in the box from Katelyn Faucette at the 3:14mark on the clock and slipped a shot into the net past a diving Erin Zaideman as the Buccaneers (2-2) went up early against the Panthers (3-5). Caitlin Cody played all 90 minutes in the net for CSU in the match, facing 18 shots and recording seven saves in her first shutout of the 2012 season.

"Every game we’ve played in this year, we’ve gotten better on the field. This is our best performance so far, everything we worked on this week was there in the game situations," commented head coach Eric Terrill following the victory. "It’s still a work in progress and we need to take more shots. Northern Iowa is a good team, well-coached and physically aggressive on the field and we traded some opportunities and thankfully we were able to finish."

Northern Iowa recorded the first shot attempt of the game as Kiki McClellan’s attempt sailed wide right inside the first two minutes of the game. The Buccaneers struck back with their first attempt as Lewis placed the ball past Zaideman and into the bottom left corner of the net following the touch from Faucette to put CSU up 1-0.

Shortly after the goal, the teams were forced to vacate the field for 80 minutes due to lightning strikes in the area. When play resumed, the Panthers came out strong, launching 11 shots in the first half as the CSU keeper, but Cody proved up to the task, recording four saves to keep the score at 1-0 in favor of the Buccaneers at the break.

The Panthers continued to put the pressure on the Charleston Southern defense in the second half as Caitlyn Fuller attempted an early shot in the second half that Cody was able to collect. A pair of headers by Maddie Welch and Fuller, and a shot attempt by Sarah McHugh were also turned away in the first 15 minutes of the second period as Cody and the CSU defense fought back against the UNI pressure.

Charleston Southern nearly doubled their lead as Faucette collected a long pass in front of the UNI box to put her in a one-on-one situation with the UNI keeper, but Zaideman charged forward and was able to deflect Faucette’s shot attempt toward the right sideline to keep the Panthers within reach.

Faucette had another attempt at the 75:53 mark, as the sophomore midfielder launched a header toward the net off the corner kick by Emma Faubert, but the ball sailed over the crossbar to keep the score at 1-0.

Northern Iowa and Charleston Southern traded scoring attempts to close out the match, but Charlotte Jones and Kelsey Dolder’s attempts for UNI were blocked, while Zaideman made a save on Ashley Lowdermilk’s shot from 25 yards out as the game finished with the 1-0 Buccaneers victory.

"We need to keep moving in the right direction," said Terrill about CSU’s upcoming game against Francis Marion. "We’ve tried to adjust some of the issues we’ve had this week and we have several players stepping up to give us more minutes. This weekend against Francis Marion is an important in-state rivalry game; it’s going to be huge for us and them. They’re a good team, they’re going to work hard and it should be a great game."

Charleston Southern returns to the road this weekend as they travel to Florence, S.C. to take on in-state foe Francis Marion University on Sunday, August 9th. Kickoff between the Buccaneers and the Patriots on the FMU Soccer Field is set for 4 p.m.