Sept. 23, 2007
COLUMBIA, S.C. – Four players scored as the seventh-ranked South Carolina women’s soccer team shutout Marshall, 4-0, Sunday afternoon at Stone Stadium. The shutout is the sixth of the season for South Carolina as they conclude the non-conference portion of the schedule.
With the win, South Carolina improves to 8-1-0 while Marshall drops to 3-5-0. Laura Armstrong earned the win for the Gamecocks and improves to 2-0-0 on the season with the shutout. She moves into sole position on the USC all-time goaltending list with 10 career shutouts.
“This was another great effort for our team,” head coach Shelley Smith said. “We played a lot of players and had a lot of different people step up. We went out of the first half with an understanding of what we had to do and took advantage of what Marshall gave us (offensively).”
After failing to find the net for the first time this season at Clemson, the Gamecocks attacked the Marshall defense early with a score in the eighth minute. Senior Ashley Kirk took a ball just past midfield and split three Marshall defenders with a pass to Darcel Mollon. Mollon immediately played the ball to Danila Monteiro in the box for a bank shot off the post for the goal.
Sullivan added Carolina’s second goal in 57th minute off a pass from freshman Brooke Jacobs, seeing her first action of the season after suffering an ACL injury her senior year of high school. The Gamecocks then added two more with Kacie Brewer scoring her first career goal in the 83rd minute from a corner kick by Monteiro. Annie Galloway ended the scoring in the 89th minute after taking a pass from Jacobs and firing a shot from 20 yards out for the goal.
“It was Jacobs’s first game so it was nice to see her come out and have a good game with two assists,” Smith said. “We were glad to see Brewer get a goal. She’s tremendous at headers and it was nice to see one finally go in for her.”
The goals mark the fourth of the season for Monteiro, fifth for Sullivan and second for Galloway. The assists were the fifth for Kirk and the second for Mollon and Monteiro. Kirk also moved into a tie for 11th place on the USC all-time scoring list with 27 career points.
Carolina held a 23-2 shot advantage, the fifth game this season that they have held the opposition to five shots or less. Eleven of Carolina’s attempts were on goal compared to zero for the Thundering Herd. Marshall’s Liz Orton recorded seven saves.
The Gamecocks came close a few to matching their other two home matches with five goals. The first came in the 32nd minute with a set piece by Kirk placed directly in front of the goal, but the header by Kimmy Gillespie was saved just shy of the net. Two other opportunities came when Mollon’s shot in the 88th minute just missed the goal while Lindsay Small’s shot in the 90th minute bounced off the crossbar.
South Carolina returns to the pitch Thursday in a nationally televised game against Southeastern Conference foe Tennessee. The game, scheduled for an 8 p.m. kickoff in Knoxville, will broadcast on the Fox Soccer Channel in the SEC opener for both teams.
