Soccer logs road shutout at Georgia, 3-0
Aug. 26, 2011 ATHENS, Ga. – The Texas Longhorns scored three or more goals in consecutive games for the first time since the start of the 2008 season, blanking the Georgia Bulldogs 3-0 at UGA Soccer Stadium on Friday night. With the win, Texas improved to 2-1 on the year while Georgia fell to 1-1. The last time Texas notched three or more goals in back-to-back games was the first two games of 2008 when the Longhorns started the season with a 4-0 win vs. Samford and a 3-1 victory at Kentucky. Following a 3-0 win at Houston, Texas scored three or more goals in back-to-back shutouts for the first time since Sept. 21 (4-0 vs. Houston) and Sept. 23 (4-0 vs. Stephen F. Austin) of 2007. Texas drew first blood in the sixth minute. Hannah Higgins raced down the left side of the field and entered the penalty box six yards from the end line and worked parallel to the goal face. Before getting to the goal area she centered the ball past the Bulldogs’ netminder to Taylor Knaack who put it in the back of the goal from point blank range. The Longhorns inflated the cushion to 2-0 with a well-executed corner kick. Taylor Knaack put the ball in play from the right side. Her kick found the head of Lucy Keith on the left side of the goal area. Keith redirected the ball to Gabby Zarnegar who was unchecked five yards in front of the toothless mouth of the goal. Georgia put the pot on the hot stove early in the second half, but the water wouldn’t boil. The Bulldogs had its best scoring opportunity of the game six minutes into the second half when Jamie Pollock booted a ball towards the near post from seven yards out on the right flank, but Alexa Gaul punched the ball out of bounds for the save. A Georgia penalty kick from 19 yards out proved not to be perilous as it was launched directly into the line of burnt orange.
The Longhorns were not finished their own offensive brew. Kylie Doniak blasted a laser from 10 yards out, but Georgia netminder Ashley Baker was able to get her right paw on it to swat it out of bounds with 26 minutes remaining. Thirteen minutes later Allison Smith launched a shot from 15 yards out of the reach of the goalie, but defender Rebekah Perry was able to block it. The late pressure yielded a goal in the 84th minute when Doniak deflected a long feed from Nina Frausing Pederson into the goal for her second goal of the season. It was Pederson’s second assist of the year, both on long-distance passes. Texas owned a 16-15 advantage in shots, 8-5 edge in shots on goal and a 7-3 margin in corner kicks. Gaul went the distance in net for the Horns to pick up her second shutout of the season and the 13th of her career. With the win, Texas improved to 18-7-4 all-time vs. members of the Southeastern Conference. The Longhorns return to action on Sunday when they host Cal State Northridge in a 1 p.m. contest at Mike A. Myers Stadium. It will be the first soccer contest to ever be broadcast on the Longhorn Network. TEXAS QUOTES Senior forward Taylor Knaack On why the offense worked so well in the game: I think we did a really good job of attacking the flanks. We knew that through our scouting report that one of the areas we could benefit at is on the outside of their defense. We knew if we put pressure on them on the outside we could get good scoring chances and that’s exactly what we did.
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