BOONE, N.C. — Appalachian State University women's soccer used a second-half explosion to down Northern Kentucky 3-1 in its 2016 regular season and home opener on Friday afternoon at the Appalachian Soccer Stadium at the Ted Mackorell Soccer Complex.
“We watched them play on film and saw what they do, flee-flicking the ball to 12 and we told our the girls that this girl's pace is incredible up top and this is what they'll do and they'll shoot from range,” head coach Sarah Strickland said. “We knew they were going to have opportunities. They just beat Western Kentucky, which is a really good women's soccer program. They use to win the Sun Belt regularly. We knew it was going to be a battle and it was just going to be a matter of we have to get through it and wear them down and get through it and we knew that once we got used to their system, we could settle down and work our way out.
Strickland continued, “We tried not to adjust too much to what they were doing so that we could learn and keep our own style and work on that as opposed to just adapting. We could have fixed it from the very beginning and played a different formation but that wouldn't have helped us for when we play Troy who does something of a similar flick-on style. It was we have to be disciplined about what we're doing and we have to stick to the plan and play our way our of it, making them play us as opposed to us adjusting to play them.”
The Mountaineers faced a position they were familiar with from exhibitions by being down 1-0 in the first half. Despite 11 shots, App State couldn't get the ball passed NKU's goalkeeper, Emily Lohmann. Their best opportunity came as senior Aubrey Fletcher made a negative run toward the goal and only had the keeper to beat. Unfortunately, the shot sailed wide right, but it kept the pressure on the Norse despite being up.
In the second half, Appalachian found some daylight when Jane Cline rocketed a shot at NKU's Lohmann, who couldn't control it, forcing a rebound that junior Sarah Peatross found and sent through the uprights in the 53rd minute to equalize the match.
Not long after in the 56th minute, Cline was right at another rebounded shot, this time fired by Fletcher. Being at the right place at the right time, Cline lasered the ball in to go up 2-1.
With the goal, senior Cline moved into a tie for seventh all-time in program history for career goals (17).
The final goal of the game came in the 83rd minute when junior Sarah Moon drew out the goalkeeper before sending a cross from left to right to find a streaking junior Erin Settle who only had to touch the ball into the empty side of the net to set the final score at 3-1.
In the net for the full 90 for the Mountaineers was junior Sam Steyl. The goalkeeper made two saves and only allowed the one goal.
From All Angles
Once again, the Mountaineers showed that they can attack from multiple angles on the field and they can attack you a lot. After shooting a high-volume of shots in the preseason exhibitions, Appalachian came out again and fired 20 shots on the day, 10 of which were on goal.
Five student-athletes put up at least five shots, while 11 had at least one shot. Cline and Fletcher led the way in shots with five and three, respectively, while Cline and Settle led the way in shots on goal with four and two, respectively.
On the assists side as well, the Mountaineers showed depth in the amount of playmakers they had. On the three goals, the assists came from three different passers.
Looking Forward
The Mountaineers will now go on a four-match road trip, starting on Sunday, Aug. 21 when the team faces Davidson at 2 p.m. From there, App State will travel to High Point (Aug. 26), Radford (Aug. 28) and Liberty (Sept. 2) before returning home on Sept. 3 to face Maryland.
