September 14, 2010

DAHLONEGA, GA – The North Georgia women's soccer team found themselves in a 1-1 battle at the half on Tuesday evening, but the Lady Saints exploded with three second-half goals to take down Newberry College 4-2 at the Soccer Complex in non-conference action.

North Georgia extends their winning streak to three games, improving to 4-1 on the season, while the Wolves are still in search of their first victory of the year, falling to 0-5 for the 2010 campaign.

The Lady Saints got the scoring started in the 13th minute as defending PBC Freshman of the Year Kelsey Martin worked her magic and dribbled around Newberry goalkeeper Emily Rhoades to an empty net where she scored her second goal of the season.

Newberry would answer 10 minutes later however, as Amberly Fowler took a deflected header off a North Georgia player and sent a shot to a nearly open net, giving Fowler her first goal of the season and knotting the score at 1-1.

The Lady Saints and Wolves would play into halftime with a goal apiece, but it was senior All-American Casey Smith who broke the deadlock in the 56th minute, taking a free kick from 30 yards out that and sending a laser that hit off the keeper's hands and found the back of the net to give Smith her first goal of the season and make it a 2-1 game.

Scoring then came in bunches over the next five minutes as Amber Chase scored an unassisted goal at the 60:20 mark for Newberry to tie the score once again, but it was North Georgia responding on the kickoff as Emily Dover came right back and notched her second goal of the season just 10 seconds later, a score that turned out to be the game-winner.

Samantha Abrahart added insurance in the 65th minute, taking a cross from Smith and sending a perfect header inside the right post to cap the scoring and give the Lady Saints a 4-2 victory. For Abrahart, the freshman adds to her team lead in goals with her fifth score of the season, while the cross from Smith gave her assist number five of the year, a mark that now leads the Peach Belt Conference.

Jessica English allowed both Newberry goals and tallied four saves on the evening to earn her fourth win of the season in goal as North Georgia out-shot the Wolves by total count of 24-8. The Lady Saints continued to dominate corner kicks by a 7-1 margin, while improving to 3-1 at home.

North Georgia will have three days off before returning to action on Saturday evening for the fifth final game of the longest home stand of the year. The Lady Saints will host the University of Montevallo at 5:00 p.m. for an all-important Peach Belt Conference showdown with the Falcons.