AUBURN, Ala. — The LSU soccer team could not find the back of the net despite attempting five shots on goal and was shutout by Auburn, 2-0, on Sunday at the Auburn Soccer Complex for its third-straight defeat in the Southeastern Conference.
The Tigers (6-7-2, 2-5-1 SEC) fall to 4-8 all-time against Auburn (6-8-1, 5-3 SEC) and have now dropped five-straight matches to the Tigers on the Plains.
“Auburn is particularly tough as the second team of the weekend with Alabama because they play so differently,” said LSU head coach Brian Lee. “We played great in terms of passing the ball, movement and organized defending, but Auburn just took advantage of some of our defensive mistakes. Good teams do that.”
Defender Ronda Brooks scored the first goal for Auburn in the 34th minute of the first half as she took a pass from defender Ashley Eason and ripped a shot from 30 yards out that ricocheted off the crossbar and into the goal.
Midfielder Ashley Willis tacked on Auburn’s second goal of the match in the 66th minute of play when she ripped a shot passed a diving Jackie Moseley and into the left side of the net from 18 yards out at the center of the box. Midfielder Jenny Zarzour was credited with the assist on Willis’ third goal of the season.
Lee said it was a challenge for his team to defend Auburn throughout the match while playing without the services of two defensive starters in senior team captain Tara Mitnick and freshman Veronica Godbolt.
“Losing two of them today is probably a little more than we could handle,” Lee said. “Veronica plays such a big role on our team because she’s so athletic when the ball is in the middle of the field. We don’t have a player who can replace that. Obviously, Tara is a senior leader and just having her experience on the field would have been huge for us.”
LSU had difficulty dissecting the Auburn defense as it was held to a total of just six shots in the match with five shots on goal and three corner kicks. Lee credited the Auburn coaches and players for executing a game plan that limited the number of scoring opportunities for LSU.
“Auburn’s a well-coached team, and once they got the second goal it seemed like we kind of shut it down offensively,” Lee said. “We tried pushing two forwards and then three forwards late, but we had a lot of tired legs and the Alabama game took a lot out of us because it was a high intensity game. We’ve just got to turn it around because we’re still very much in the mix for a spot in the SEC Tournament.”
LSU will attempt to turn it around on Friday as it travels to Gainesville, Fla., to take on 18th-ranked Florida at 7 p.m. followed by its final home match of the season against South Carolina on Sunday at 1 p.m. at the LSU Soccer Complex.
“We’ve got two really tough games coming up,” Lee said. “Florida’s been a premier program in the SEC for a long time, and that is not going to be an easy trip for us. Then we’ve got to turn around and play on Sunday against a good South Carolina team. We need to get a result in one of those games, maybe both of them.”