BATON ROUGE — LSU sophomore Roslyn Jones gathered a long volley from freshman Katherine Lagow and sprinted past two defenders to score the game-winning goal with three seconds left as the LSU soccer team earned a 3-2 win over the Kentucky Wildcats on Friday.
The play was set up when freshman Rachel Yepez won a ball on the defensive end and played it forward to fellow freshman Michelle Makasini with 13 seconds remaining on the clock. Makasini dropped a touch pass back to Lagow, who played a ball over the top of the Kentucky defense to a streaking Jones near the top of the penalty box.
Jones collected the ball and beat two defenders before firing a shot from 10 yards out in the right side of the box with three seconds left in the match. The ball deflected off Kentucky goalkeeper Anne Ogundele’s hand and rolled into the back of the net for the game-winning strike.
“I knew I was going to be open if Kat played it up to me, and I knew we only had about 10 seconds left in the game,” Jones said. “I was just trying to get her attention, and she played a perfect ball to me. I took a touch, saw the far post was open and stayed composed as best as I could and finished it far post.”
LSU head coach Brian Lee said the play that set up Jones’ game-winning goal illustrates the character and determination his young team has shown throughout the early part of the season and will only help it grow and mature as it moves forward in the Southeastern Conference.
“The ball popped out to Katherine and she played a great ball to Roslyn to put her in a position to score,” Lee said. “What can you say about Roslyn Jones? That goal was just spectacular. A play like that is what hard work is all about. They didn’t give up even though the clock was running down and scored a tremendous goal to give this team a big win.”
Forward Giuleana Lopez gave the Wildcats an early 1-0 lead in the fifth minute after taking an end line cross from midfielder Callie Lanphier and ripping a shot into the back of the net from six yards out. Lopez added Kentucky’s second goal at the 66:34 mark of the second half with a 25-yard blast outside the box.
Makasini scored her SEC leading ninth goal of the season in the 20th minute after taking a feed from Jones and firing a shot from the top of the box that deflected into the net off of a Kentucky defender to tie the score at 1-1. Yepez pushed the LSU lead to 2-1 in the 56th minute with a volley over the outstretched arms of Ogundele, who left the net to challenge the shot.
LSU (6-4-1, 1-0-1 SEC) extended its unbeaten streak to four games and earned its first ever win over Kentucky (5-4-1, 0-1-0 SEC) by dominating the game on the offensive side of the field. The Tigers finished the match with 20 total shots and seven shots on goal compared to just nine shots and three shots on goal for the Wildcats.
“Any SEC win is a big win, but we feel like the big turning point for this team came by how we competed on Friday night,” Lee said. “We played like champions again today and were rewarded for our hard work with a big win. It just shows that the character of this team is outstanding.”
The Tigers return to action next weekend as they begin a four-game SEC road trip against a pair of Western Division rivals from the state of Mississippi. They travel to take on Mississippi State on Friday at 7 p.m. in Starkville followed by a match against Ole Miss on Sunday at 1 p.m. in Oxford.