August 27, 2008

Lady Tiger soccer gives valiant effort in program’s first game

Not knowing what to expect from his newly assembled team, Cowley College head women’s soccer coach Roberto Dos Santos was pleasantly surprised by the performance his team gave in the first ever game played by the Lady Tiger soccer program.

Cowley battled hard before losing at Neosho County Tuesday by a score of 3-2.

In fact, amazingly it took just one minute and 19 seconds for the Lady Tigers to score the program’s first ever goal. Carol Rodrigues, a freshman from Brazil, scored on an assist from Monica Vega to put Cowley on top 1-0.

“It was awesome,” Dos Santos said. “Our girls came out strong.”

Cowley would maintain the 1-0 lead until Neosho’s Morgan Sampson scored at the 23:49 mark of the first half. The score would remain tied until midway through the second half.

Once again, Cowley would go on top as this time Rodrigues assisted Amber Hernandez for the go-ahead goal with just less than 25 minutes remaining in the game.

However, Sampson would score her second goal of the game at the 34:02 mark of the second half, and put the Lady Panthers ahead 3-2 by scoring her third goal just a little more than three minutes later. Sampson achieved the hat-trick (three goals) unassisted.

“We had some confusion between a defender and our goalkeeper that allowed that goal to score,” Dos Santos said.

Cowley continued to fight hard to the end despite having only 13 players on its roster.

“The fatigue factor seemed to cost us,” Dos Santos said.

Although the team was disappointed to lose, Dos Santos had to remind them that they are a first year program consisting of all freshmen.

“I was extremely proud of the girls and told them to keep their heads up,” Dos Santos said. “We are going to keep on working hard.”

Carly Budd made nine saves in goal for the Lady Tigers, while Neosho’s Kelsie Maxwell stopped eight shots.

“We could have hurt them badly in the first half as we had some clear shots to score,” Dos Santos said.

The Lady Tigers will return to action Thursday, Sept. 4, when they play their home opener against Independence at 5 p.m.