TEXARKANA, Texas – The Louisiana Christian University women's soccer team will continue its best season in program history into the 2021 Red River Athletic Conference Tournament's Championship Final as the Wildcats scored two first half goals, added a third in the second half, and blanked Huston-Tillotson to the tune of a 3-0 win over the Rams in the semifinal match Thursday afternoon at Judy Kelley Morgan Field on the campus of Texas A&M-Texarkana.
The Wildcats got all the goals they would need in the match's 16
th minute as
Emma Monnet lifted a perfectly weighted cross into the air and Laura Baú Magleau got her head onto it to redirect the ball into the goal for a 1-0 lead.
Not content to sit on the lead, LCU continued to press the advantage, and it paid off with another goal to expand the lead before halftime. In the 35
th minute,
Stephanie Doran slotted a through ball that
Emma Monnet ran onto the end of and beat the Ram goalkeeper to make it 2-0 Wildcats. LCU would take that 2-0 lead into the break.
About midway through the second half, two plays in quick succession helped secure the Wildcat victory. In the 74
thminute,
Isabella Campos Paniagua got on the ball in the midfield and sent a pass towards Laura Pérez Velasco. But Pérez Velasco let it roll through to the feet of
Martina Terra Garcia, who was behind the defense. Terra Garcia attacked the goal in the 1v1 situation and scored to make it 3-0 Wildcats.
A minute later, a ball over the top got to Terra Garcia's feet again and again she was 1v1 with the Ram goalkeeper. But, with the HTU goalkeeper way off her line as she was outside of the box, Terra Garcia went for the chip shot over the keeper's head. The goalkeeper put her hands up face-high, and Terra Garcia's shot hit the goalkeeper in her hands. Immediately, the referee blew the whistle and produced a red card, sending off the goalkeeper for the illegal hand ball that denied the Wildcats and obvious goal-scoring opportunity. With the Rams now reduced to ten players for the final 15 minutes of the match, the Wildcats controlled the pace and saw out the clock for the victory.
Emma Monnet led the offense as she collected her eighth goal of the season on three shots with the one on target going in. She was also credited with her seventh assist of the season in the victory.
Martina Terra Garcia, the conference's leading scorer this season, added her 22
nd goal of the season to her stat line as she took four shots and put two on frame. Laura Baú Magleau put in her sixth goal of the season, first which determined the game's outcome, as she took three shots in the match and put two on target.
Jessica Carro Pedreira (14-1-1) was called on to make two saves as she picked up her sixth clean sheet of the season, first in the postseason.
The Wildcats (15-1-1), the one-seed in the 2021 RRAC Women's Soccer Championship Tournament, now advance to the program's first ever Conference Tournament Championship Final on Saturday against Our Lady of the Lake, looking to secure not just the first Conference Touranment Championship in program history, but also an automatic spot in the NAIA National Championship Tournament. LCU knocked off OLLU in this season's earlier meeting 2-0 on October 2
nd at Wildcat Field. Kickoff of Saturday's match against the third-seeded Saints (13-5-1) is set for 1:00 P.M. at Judy Kelley Morgan Field on the Texas A&M-Texarkana campus.
