Jaguar Soccer Improves to 4-0 On Season
The Jaguar soccer team moved to 4-0 on the season with an impressive offensive showing against Tennessee-Martin on Sunday at the Troy Soccer Complex. This also marks the first time in school history that the Jaguar soccer team has started the season 4-0 and is unbeaten in their last 22 regular-season games (21-0-1).
Junior Monique Autmon and freshman Jemma Purfield recorded a goal and assist each. Autmon put the Jags on the board first in 9th minute. Just 46 seconds later, Autmon got an assist with Rio Hardy sending home the shot off rebound from the goalkeeper in the 10th minute of play.
Hannah Godrey put the ball in the net in the 28th minute with an assist by Nini Rabsatt-Smith. The Jags would be quiet on the scoring front until the 52nd minute when Charde Hannah recorded her third goal of the season on a penalty kick.
The Jaguars ended the game in a similar fashion as they started it: with a flury of goals. In a seven-minute span, the Jaguars scored three goals by three different student-athletes. Freshman Purfield got it started with a goal off her own rebound in the 59th minute. Then in the 63rd minute Jordan Duncan scored on an assist by Purfield. Finally in the 66th minute Danielle Henley scored on a low driven cross which gave Alyssa Mayer an assist on the day.
“I’m really happy with the performance today,” Jag head coach Graham Winkworth said. “We put in a better performance than Friday night and were patient with our play. Today we moved the ball around exceptionally well, created a lot of chances and got a lot of players forward. The seven different goal scorers emphasizes the way in which we played today but also the quality of our whole squad.”
USA had a season-high 23 shots on goal from 10 differnt players. “We probably could’ve had more shots but we were patient in our shooting; we weren’t taking a lot of shots from distance,” Winkworth noted. “A lot of those shots were from very close range and some of those goals were tap-ins because of the creativity in the play leading up to the goal. This is the first time that I think we’ve really put some quality football together in the final third.”
Junior keeper Sarah Hay made six saves in 90 minutes. The Skyhawks only managed three shots in each half as the Jaguars recorded their second-consecutive clean sheet of the season.
“All weekend we’ve looked extremely solid defensively,” Winkworth said. “Steffi (Hardy) has led the back line extremely well in the middle and Hannah has been very solid. Jemma has done a great job getting forward, and Alyssa (Mayer) and Nikki (Shirtcliffe) have done well too. We’ve got a lot of quality and defended well all weekend.”
“There’s no letting off and players were coming in off the bench and not only do they want to put in a good performance for the team but they want to make a claim for a starting position and more playing time for themselves,” Winkworth stated. “Today was no different. We had a lot of quality performances from front to back all over the pitch.”
The Jaguars will host Austin Peay, South Florida and Troy over the weekend. Troy and Austin Peay will play at 4pm on Friday, September 4 followed by the Jags and South Florida playing at 7pm. Then on Sunday, Troy will play USF at noon on Sunday followed by the Jags vs Austin Peay at 2:30pm.