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LONGVIEW, Texas – Behind a total of five goals, the LeTourneau University women’s soccer team picked up a 5-0 shutout win over Louisiana College on “Senior Night” at the Joyce Family Athletic Village in Longview, Texas on Friday, October 20.
“Senior Night was a true team effort,” said Coach John Antonisse. “The team played great and honored our five seniors in a special way with five goals, one for each senior.”
In the first half, Rebekah Stevenson received the ball off a deflection and lofted the ball over the goalie to score in the 11th minute of the game and put the YellowJackets up early on the Wildcats.
Ten minutes later, Keely Hayden would receive the ball from Kennedy Keer at the top of the box. Hayden would manage to cut the ball across the Wildcat defender to extend the LETU lead to 2-0.
At the 26th minute mark, Kelli Sonnier scored her 4th goal of the season off a pass from Jennifer Martin. On receiving the pass, Sonnier touched the ball forward and finished it to the far corner of the goal to put the YellowJackets up 3-0.
The YellowJackets would score in the first five minutes of the second half when Riley Scarborough would find Martin’s head on a corner kick. Martin’s goal would give LeTourneau a commanding 4-0 lead and well in control of the game.
The final goal would come from Alexis Tomlinson as Tamara Martin would send a ball across the box to find Tomlinson who would be able to slot the ball past the keeper.
The YellowJacket defense added another shutout to the 2017 season to bring their season total to six. Carrye Funk would play all 90 minutes in net to record her fifth shutout of the season which ties the single-season school record (Nicole Tammelin, 2008).
The night honored five YellowJacket seniors before the game, with their last game at the LETU soccer field coming in style. With the win, Carrye Funk, Myranda Pierce, Riley Scarborough, JoLynn O’Kelley, and Kennedy Keer earned their 15th home win of their careers.
The final weekend of the regular season will be on the road for the YellowJackets where they will play at UT Dallas on Thursday, October 26, and Howard Payne University on Saturday, October 28.
LONGVIEW, Texas – Fighting back from a 2-1 deficit to tie the game in the final 15 minutes of regulation, the LeTourneau University men’s soccer team would be stunned by a goal just one minute into overtime. It was in a 3-2 loss to Belhaven University at the Joyce Family Athletic Village in Longview on Thursday, October 19.
The loss now leaves LETU with an overall record of 2-7-4 and 2-4-2 in the American Southwest Conference while the Blazers improve to 3-6-5 and 3-3-2 in the ASC.
Belhaven would try and take control of the game early on by forcing the YellowJackets into a defensive mode and holding possession throughout the middle and attacking third of the field. After two corner kicks in the opening five minutes of the game, the Blazers would force two saves by LeTourneau keeper Miguel Cabrera before the YellowJackets would clear the ball back to the other end of the field.
LETU would then take advantage of a Belhaven mistake as the ball would be attempted to be played back to the goalie when Varney Carter would intercept the pass. Carter received his opportunity of a one on one with the Blazer goalie and forced Thomas Blake to make a move before putting the ball away and give the YellowJackets a 1-0 lead at the 17:35 mark.
Things would start to settle down in the first half as opportunities would start to become few and far in between when Belhaven looked to even the scoreline right before intermission. The Blazers shot in the 41st minute would sail left of the goal but keep the ball in the LETU half of the field when a foul on the YellowJackets gave BU a free kick. The free kick would go into the box where Alex Hale would head the ball home to the far post and knot the score at one just four minutes before halftime.
The second half would get off to a much quicker start. Belhaven would take their first lead of the game on a ball, sent across the box, right in front of Cabrera before Ryan Thomas, who was at the far post, found the ball and put it away before LeTourneau could clear the ball.
Looking to tie the game at two, LETU would earn a corner kick in the 66th minute that would be taken by Edgar Sanchez and sent all the way across the box where Zachariah Malik would get the ball. Malik managed to get the ball back across the box with a shot that would go in for a goal but would be waved off for an offsides call after a discussion between the linesman and the official.
With the goal waved off, LETU would still find themselves in a one-goal deficit and over 20 minutes left in regulation which would be more than enough time to find an equalizer. Guillermo Torres and Eric Smith would put up the next three shots for the YellowJackets but come up empty as the match would start to near the 15-minute mark left in the second half.
A Belhaven Foul in the 78th minute gave LETU a chance at their free kick from just outside the box when Porfirio Benitez kept the ball on the ground and past the Blazer wall to force a save by Blake. Blake’s rescue would be put back into play in the box where David Trost took the rebounded shot and fired a shot into the back of the net to tie the game at two and give the YellowJackets new life.
Cabrera would then come up with a game-saving save on the other end of the field just a few minutes later to keep the score tied as neither team would be able to break through for an all-important third goal in regulation.
Belhaven took the ball to start the overtime session and right away would play the ball into the attacking third of the field where they put LeTourneau on the defense. The ball would manage to be played through to an open Blazer who would beat Cabrera for the golden goal and end the game just one minute into extra-time.
Each team would manage to fire off 14 shots in the game with Belhaven earning six corner kicks compared to five for LETU. Cabrera would be forced to make six saves in the game as the Blazers held a 9-5 advantage in shots on goal.
Benitez led all players in the game with five shots on the night while Torres put up three shots. The goals by Trost and Carter would each be their first of the season.
Three seniors will be honored tomorrow night as part of the senior night for LeTourneau when the YellowJackets host Louisiana College in a game at 7:30 p.m. at the Joyce Family Athletic Village. The game was moved up from Saturday to Friday due to forecasted severe weather that is expected to be in the Longview area on Saturday afternoon.
LONGVIEW, Texas – Senior Kennedy Keer would play a role in both LeTourneau University goals as the YellowJackets would shutout visiting Belhaven University by a final of 2-0 at the Joyce Family Athletic Village on Thursday, October 19.
LETU improves to 7-5-3 overall and earns a crucial three points in the American Southwest Conference to improve to 3-4-2 while the visiting Blazers are now 2-11-1 overall and 1-8 in the ASC.
The YellowJackets didn’t wait long to jump out to an early lead as Keer would slot a pass through the defense to Jennifer Martin in the fourth minute. When receiving the pass, Martin evaded the Blazer defender and placed the ball in the far, lower corner to solidify her third goal of the season and the game-winning goal.
After the goal, the YellowJackets would remain in control for the rest of the half and keep the pressure on Belhaven by putting up seven shots.
The second half would see another quick strike by the YellowJackets as Myranda Pierce would serve a ball into Keer who would head the ball past the keeper and push the YellowJacket lead to 2-0.
A two-goal lead would be more than enough for LETU, who would hold BU to only one shot in the second half and come away with their fourth shutout victory of the season.
“We battled a tough Belhaven team today and came out with a great result,” said Coach John Antonisse in a postgame interview. I’m proud of this team and the way they played tonight.”
Throughout the game, the YellowJacket defense would remain strong and limit the Blazers to three shots on goal. Goalkeeper Carrye Funk recorded her fourth clean of the season and is now just one shutout shy of tying the LETU single-season record set by Nicole Tammelin in 2008. With three points on the night, Keer now has 43 in her career to move her into seventh all-time at LeTourneau.
The YellowJackets will host Louisiana College tomorrow, October 20, at 5:00 PM for their final home game and Senior Night. Honored before the game will be Riley Scarborough, Myranda Pierce, Carrye Funk, JoLynn O’Kelley, and Kennedy Keer.
Matt Kinney
Sports Information Director