Conway – The Central Arkansas women's soccer team played its first home match in over a month on Sunday afternoon, hosting the Northwestern State Lady Demons at the Bill Stephens Soccer Complex. The Bears got a goal in each half to earn their first Southland Conference win, taking down the Lady Demons 2-0.
Central Arkansas (5-4-1, 1-1 SLC) took the lead in the 22
nd minute, when
Vanessa Randall fired a cross to the feet of
Kate Koch, who slid it just inside the right post to put the Bears up 1-0 with her first goal of the season.
The Bears got an insurance goal in the 68
th minute, as
Allie Coleman crossed the ball to
Shelby Wilson, who blasted the ball inside the left post to extend the Central Arkansas lead to 2-0 with her third goal of the season. "We did a good job of getting the ball to end and showing composure in the box on both goals," said Central Arkansas head coach Jeremy Bishop. "It was great to be home after a tough month and a half on the road where is seemed like we were just living off of the bus. It was nice to come out and have a good crowd and get on our field."
Central Arkansas held a 13-8 advantage in shots over Northwestern State (3-8-1, 0-3-1 SLC) on the day, placing six of those attempts on target. Randall, Wilson, Coleman, Koch,
Alexandra Wurst, and
Peyton Reisch each had a shot on goal. Jackie Strug, Chelsea Schaefer, and Cache Haley each had a shot on goal for the Lady Demons.
"We've been playing pretty well the last couple of times out and not getting the results, so it was really nice to go out and put the ball in the net and get the result we were looking for," said Bishop. "Honestly it felt like we probably played a little bit better the last couple of games and didn't get the results, so hopefully it'll click soon that we can play well and get the results."
Anna Hughes made three saves to earn the win and pick up her second shutout of the season for Central Arkansas, while Alex Latham made four saves to take the loss for Northwestern State.
Central Arkansas returns to the field twice next weekend, hosting Abilene Christian at 7:00 PM on Friday night and Incarnate Word at 1:00 PM on Sunday afternoon. "Abilene beat us last year, so we need to get back at them, and I thought that Incarnate Word was one of the best teams we played last season, although their results haven't been there this season," said Bishop. "They'll both be very competitive, so we'll have to put the ball in the net and do a better job of coming up for each other in defense."
