With freshman Ashley Aragona leading the way with three goals, the Lee women’s soccer team bounced back from a stunning defeat at Emory University to defeat visiting Savannah College of Art and Design.
On a near perfect Saturday evening for soccer, the 4-0 victory improved the Lady Flames’ record to 2-1 on the year, while SCAD slipped to 2-2-1.
“It was good to see Ashley get off the mark,” said coach Matt Yelton. “We brought her in because we knew she could score goals. I think she has been gaining confidence each time out and I was really pleased to see her get some goals in the scoring column.”
Aragona’s first score came just two minutes deep into the contest. She was assisted on the goal by Darcy Brannen, who had two assists for the game. It remained a 1-0 battle at the half. Aragona struck again at the beginning of the second 45 minutes and took the sting out of the visiting Bees.
“I thought it was a fairly even first half of play,” added Yelton. When we got an early goal at the beginning of the second half, I think it had a way of settling our nerves and helped us perform a little better.”
Aragona came up with a hat trick in the 71st minute and really destroyed any hopes that SCAD envisioned. Clair Lander dished off the assist. Senior captain Sammy Hare got into the scoring action in the 83rd minute with an unassisted tally.
“As the game went on, I really felt like we came into our own,” pointed out Yelton. “Caroline Scales was great tonight. We moved her into the center-mid role and she really helped pick up some of the energy that I felt we had been lacking the last few matches.”
The Lee coach went on to praise the play of junior forward Jamie Achten and his defenders. “Even thought Jamie didn’t get a goal tonight, she was a threat to score and I think that opened up things for Ashley on the other side a little bit,” he stressed. “If we can get Jamie and Ashley both attacking well in the flanks we are going to be hard to stop.”
Yelton added, “It was good to get back on the shutout side of things. We take pride in our defending and I thought our back four did a very good job of containing some very fast and talented front runners that SCAD had.”
The defense held the Bees to just seven shots for the game. Only one was on target and Lee keeper, Leah Wilson, collected the save. On the other hand, the Lady Flames fired off 23 shots and 11 were on goal. SCAD keeper Sara Collins registered six saves for the losers.
The Lady Flames will return to action on Wednesday traveling to the top of Monteagle Mountain and challenging the University of the South at 7:30 p.m.