BATON ROUGE — The LSU soccer team scored three goals to defeat the Nicholls State Lady Colonels on Friday, as the Tigers’ Bonnie Otillio earned her third shutout of the young season at the LSU Soccer Complex.
“We won the game tonight and that was good,” said LSU head coach George Fotopoulos. “But I think that we played exactly like a team that lost a tough match on Wednesday. In the first half, we were lacking a lot of confidence and that got us off to a bad start.”
LSU freshman Mallery Sausser scored the game winning goal of the contest with 21:10 remaining in the half as she headed an Ashley Mitnick corner kick past Nicholls State’s keeper. On the score, Sausser earned her first goal as an LSU Tiger and Mitnick was awarded her fourth assist of the season.
Mitnick, LSU’s second team All-Southeastern Conference defender, moved into second place on the Tigers’ all-time record book on Friday, as she tied Brenna Bech with 12 career assists. The former LSU great Michelle McKinney holds the all-time record with 14.
The LSU soccer team owns an impressive 6-3 record when Mitnick notches an assist including a 2-1 mark this season.
“In college athletics, nobody is ever unhappy with a win,” Fotopoulos said. “It’s a big difference being 3-2, as opposed to 2-3, and it was a big win for us. We didn’t have any injuries tonight and we were able to get a lot of playing time for our younger players.”
With the win, the Tigers improve to an overall record of 3-2 on the season, while Nicholls State dropped to 1-3. LSU rebounded from Wednesday’s tough 2-1 loss to South Alabama and earned its eighth-straight victory over an in-state opponent. The Lady Colonels lost their third-straight match and remain winless against LSU.
In the most exciting play of the evening, LSU’s Jenny deHay headed an Artie Brown header into the goal with one second remaining in the first half. The play gave the Tigers a 2-0 lead in the contest and was started by a crossing pass from Melissa Shelton.
Rachel Cohen added a late LSU goal at the 58:20 mark in the game to give the Tigers their final goal. The score was assisted by Elizabeth Marschall, her third of the season.
The LSU soccer team will next be in action on Sunday as the Tigers host the Auburn-Montgomery Senators at 1 p.m. at the LSU Soccer Complex.