TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The LSU soccer team dropped its second-consecutive Southeastern Conference match Friday as it fell to the Alabama Crimson Tide, 3-1, at the Alabama Soccer Complex.
The Tigers fall to 6-6-2 on the season and 2-4-1 in SEC play, while the Crimson Tide improves to 7-5-2 overall and is now 1-4-2 in the SEC after earning its first conference win of the season.
“Credit goes to Alabama for scoring on all three of their shots on goal,” said LSU head coach Brian Lee. “The girls gave a good effort. It was just one of those nights where everything Alabama put on frame happened to go in. We just came up short tonight.”
Freshman forward Jessica Deegan led the Crimson Tide offense in the match by scoring the first two goals of her Alabama career.
Deegan scored her first goal in the 36th minute of the first half by lobbing a shot just over the head of freshman goalkeeper Jackie Moseley from 30 yards out and added a second goal at the 50:15 mark of the second half to push Alabama’s lead to 2-0.
Senior forward Stacie McDougall cut the lead in half at the 58:36 mark by scoring unassisted off a rebound for the first goal of her career, but Alabama pulled away late when freshman midfielder Kailey Corken added a goal in the 70th minute of play on a loose ball of a cross in the front of the net.
“The first one we gave away Jackie thought it was wide and it just went in,” Lee said. “The other two were crosses — one that just went directly in and the other one that we dropped at their feet for an easy goal. We can’t really defend them any better, but it’s just a funny game sometimes.”
Each team attempted 16 shots in the match with LSU holding the advantage in shots on goal at 7-3, and the Tigers attempted three corner kicks to two for the Crimson Tide. Alabama led in fouls, 19-12, and a total of four yellow cards and one red card was issued in a match that was physical from the start.
“The game really wasn’t a soccer game,” Lee said. “It was more of a rugby match, but that might be doing a disservice to a rugby match in terms of the physicality of it. There were four or five yellow cards and there probably could have been 30. Each team probably could have gotten down to their last players on the bench.”
The Tigers look to rebound Sunday with a road match against the Auburn Tigers at 2 p.m. at the Auburn Soccer Complex.