Sept. 30, 2005
Athens, Ga. – Ali Williams scored two goals in the second half as Georgia defeated the South Carolina women’s soccer team 3-0 on Friday evening at the Georgia Soccer Complex. The Bulldogs improve to 8-2-1 and 2-1 in the SEC while the loss drops Carolina to 5-5 and 1-2 in the conference. USC returns to action on Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. ET with match at Tennessee.
“I think tonight Georgia proved that they wanted the match more,” said USC head coach Shelley Smith. “We didn’t come to play and compete like that. You are going to lose every time if you don’t come on the field and compete. The players didn’t play like they normally do, passed the ball away and didn’t handle their pressure well. We didn’t win the knockdowns or the 50/50 balls. We are better then what we showed.”
Carolina controlled play early in the first half with junior forward Darcel Mollon tallying several chances in the first 20 minutes but could not find the back of the net. Two of her three shots inside the “18” went wide with another saved by Georgia goalkeeper Lauren Church.
“That definitely changed things, we had the chances early on and again we didn’t finish when we had them,” said Smith. “The outlook of the match may have changed if we would have had the first one.”
Georgia would take a 1-0 lead at 33:42 on Missy Vierling’s fourth goal of the year. Vierling was able to control a clear ball from the Gamecock defense and knocked a shot from just above the left side of the “18” over the head of keeper Lindsay Thorstenson giving the Bulldogs a one-goal edge.
The match would remain 1-0 into the second half before Williams got her first one at 59:25. Off a misclear on the set piece, Williams was able to control the ball after it was knocked around and slipped a shot past USC to give Georgia a two-goal edge. Williams made it 3-0 then in the 68th minute of play when she connected with a header goal off a short cross form Cortni Joyner.
Georgia outshot the Gamecocks 12-8, the first team to hold a shot advantage over the Gamecocks this season. Mollon had three shots and Ashley Kirk has two to lead the Gamecocks. Thorstenson finished with three saves in goal for USC.
