Box Score
DANIEL ISLAND, S.C. – The College of Charleston women's soccer team outlasted crosstown rival Charleston Southern in a 2-1, come-from-behind double overtime victory at Blackbaud Stadium on Sunday evening.
After falling behind in the 28th minute, the Cougars (2-0-0) dictated the remainder of the match until netting a late equalizer and eventually scoring the game winner in the 103rd minute.
“It was a tale of two halves,” said head coach Christian Michner. “Charleston Southern, give them credit, they battled very hard all night. That's what they do: they compete. But my team stepped up. We had a good chat at halftime about our competitiveness and where we needed to go with it, and the team answered with this amazing performance.
“We set a goal of coming out of the weekend 2-0 and the players knew they were going to have to battle against two teams that were going to test our limits. I'm proud of the way the girls fought together to get the win. It's not easy to do that consistently, but the College of Charleston has done that over the years and will continue to.”
Sophomore Riley Narum provided the equalizer and later set up freshman Mary Kate Bowers for the game winner. Senior Sarah Cardamone earned an assist on the night as well.
“In the first half, we didn't come out as strong as we wanted to,” said Narum. “At halftime, Sarah Cardamone, our captain, told us we needed to step up and we really did. We fought harder in the second half and were winning more balls and we came out on top because of it.”
After seemingly chasing the game for portions of the first half, the Cougars asserted themselves to produce a 16-2 shot advantage in the second half and overtime periods.
Charleston Southern scored its goal when Jordan Newman released a ball on the left side and Chelsea Frankeny chipped it over the head of Cougar starting keeper Taylor Avery. Lauren Killian played the second half and overtime periods in goal and ultimately earned the victory.
As the game grew increasingly more physical as time wore on, the Cougars proved themselves the better side but lacked the finishing touch – despite some narrow misses – until less than 10 minutes remained. To initiate it, Cardamone masterfully kept a ball in play along the endline in the 81st minute and played it back to the six-yard line where Narum hammered it into the goal for her first of the season.
After the remainder of regulation and a scoreless overtime period, the Cougars struck again when Narum played a ball into the box from the right flank and it found its way to Bowers who proved herself to be the hero.
“This was the most physical game I've ever played,” said Bowers. “Even from the get go, it felt different from any game I've ever played. It was tough, but I'm so proud of my team and the way we finished. We were resilient. I'm just proud of how we came out strong and persevered. We easily could have bowed down and let them win, but our team wouldn't let that happen.”
The College improves to 14-3-4 against CSU and retains possession of the Silver Cup, which they've clung to since 1996.
The Cougars will make their first road trip of the season to take part in the Garnett and Black Classic hosted by South Carolina. The Cougars will challenge Milwaukee on Friday, Aug. 29 and Boston University on Sunday, Aug. 31.
