GRAMBLING, La. — Central Arkansas got a pair of goals from freshman Cassie Lange and cruised to a 4-0 road victory at Grambling State on Sunday for the Bears' third straight win.
UCA (4-2-0), which has outscored its opponents 13-1 during the winning streak, picked up its third shutout of the season and won its second straight road game.
"We're excited to be on a three-game winning streak," said UCA head coach Tina Banham. "And we've done a good job so far this year of winning on the road, which we struggled with last year, so that's nice as well. To be able to score 13 over our last three games is encouraging, especially considering we scored 20 goals all of last season."
The Bears broke the scoreless tie in the 34th minute when Haley Montgomery played a through ball to Lange, who got one-on-one with GSU goalkeeper Jordan Taylor. Taylor came out from the net, and Lange worked around her and scored into an empty net for her first collegiate goal.
A minute into the second half, the Bears extended their lead to 2-0 when Chelsea Collins took a pass from Marissa Hicks and laid it inside the far post on the ground. The lead grew to three in the 57th minute when Lange struck for a second time, this time taking the rebound off a Kristin Pollard shot deflected by Taylor and putting it into the empty net.
The Bears' final goal came in the 77th minute as Maddi Poteet scored directly on a corner kick for her team-leading third goal of the season.
"We've definitely improved in our offensive output and we're excited about how it's been a team effort," Banham said of her team, which has had 10 players account for its 15 goals. "Last week we had a different person score every goal, and today it was three people and Cassie broke out and scored her first two. We've got a lot of people contributing, and it's definitely nice to have that depth and the ability to get that kind of output from a lot of different people."
Lyndzey Goff had two saves and picked up her first shutout at UCA, and moves to 2-0 as the Bears' starting goalkeeper filling in for Kelsey Gochnauer, who missed the last two games due to injury.
The Bears had 12 shots, with 10 on goal, and limited GSU to just three shots.
UCA returns to action on Friday when they play at UALR at 7 p.m.
