Box Score PDF Box Score | HTML Box Score & Play-by-Play
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. – In the blink of an eye,
Jennifer Antonacci made a name for herself.
The freshman midfielder scored her first-career goal 28 seconds into overtime to give the Southeast Missouri soccer team a critical 2-1 win over Belmont on Friday night.
Antonacci's tally improves Southeast to 5-5-3 overall and 3-1-2 in the Ohio Valley Conference. BU, which entered play on Friday only a point behind Southeast in the OVC standings, drops to 4-7-2 and 2-3-1 in OVC play.
"Everyone is feeling great," Southeast head coach
Heather Nelson said. "We knew coming into today that the result was going to be huge for both teams and potentially be the difference between making or not making the OVC Tournament. We couldn't be happier with this win."
The Redhawks struck first in the 18th minute of play when
Breana Beine scored her first goal at Southeast. The play began when
Ashton Aubuchon boomed a punt to
Natasha Minor about 40 yards from the goal. Minor settled the ball down and fed Beine down the left side and her shot was true to put Southeast ahead 1-0. Aubuchon, picked up her first-career point by notching the secondary assist on the punt from her own goal.
"That goal is a huge confidence boost for Bre," Nelson said. "She's had good looks and been very close to scoring, but either the keeper has made a good save or the ball has just missed by inches. Hopefully she can get on a roll and balance out our attack."
Play was generally even in the first half as both teams managed four shots apiece. Southeast did have a slight edge in corner kicks (2-1), but Beine's goal was the lone marker in the opening frame.
It took barely more than five minutes after the break for the Bruins to find the equalizer. Cassie Blase launched a flip throw that bounced past the Redhawks' defense straight to Katie Proud, who beat Aubuchon for her second goal of the season to make it a brand new contest.
The Bruins controlled play for stretches in the second half and outshot the Redhawks 3-1 in the first 25 minutes of the final regulation frame. Still, Southeast persevered and started to mount some sustained pressure of its own. The Redhawks possessed the ball in dangerous areas of the 18-yard box down the stretch, but found itself unable to find the back of net. Regulation concluded with Belmont holding an 11-9 advantage in shots, but the contest went to overtime tied at 1-1.
After a brief intermission, Southeast was determined to pick up the three points it needed to gain some separation in the conference standings. The ball was played back to
Christina Rohde, who launched a big ball that went over the BU defense.
Erin Shulman caught up to the ball in stride and broke down the left flank. She then threaded a perfect pass through the box to an oncoming Antonacci, who buried the shot into the upper 90 for her first-career goal.
"(Associate Head Coach) Paul (Nelson) worked with our attacking players all week to take players on and get around the corner and play balls in like the one we scored on tonight," Nelson said. "Erin got a ball played to her and did a great job getting around the corner. She found a gap to play the ball into and we got numbers into the box. Jenny did exactly what we asked her to do and she was rewarded."
Belmont finished with a marginal advantage in shots (11-10) while Southeast attempted more corner kicks (5-3). Six different Redhawks picked up points on the night.
Aubuchon made four saves on the five shots that came her way and now sits three saves shy of Lindsay Pickering's school record of 228.
"Ashton was very effective today," Nelson said. "The game was played at both ends of the field, when she got the ball in her hand, she helped us transition. A number of our attacks tonight were generated from her punts."
Southeast is back in action on Sunday when it hosts Tennessee Tech. Opening kickoff is at 1:00 p.m.
