Sept. 2, 2007
HONOLULU, Hawaii -
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Becca Howell's header off of a Lauren Stewart corner kick tied the game with 8:30 remaining in regulation as the Auburn soccer team rallied from a first-half deficit to tie No. 26 Kansas in what was a very physical match in the OHANA Hotels No Ka Oi Tournament on Saturday night in Honolulu.
The two teams combined to commit 46 fouls and were issued a combined five yellow cards as the two teams battled for 110 minutes without deciding a winner.
"Kansas was big and strong and are 26th in the country and are going to play a physical game," Auburn Head Coach Karen Hoppa said. "For our youngsters it was a good introduction into college soccer. The level of intensity and physicality was different. I think we did a really good job of battling back and getting our composure in the second half because the first half was really about our youth and inexperience."
Monica Afanador and Caitlin King both just missed on scoring chances that would have tied the game in the earlier stages of the second half. Afanador's header off of a Jenn Johnson free kick just missed slipping past the near post with 35 minutes left while King turned and ripped a shot from 15 yards out that was just a few feet wide of the far post with just over 30 minutes remaining.
Stephanie Fransoso also had a near-goal with just under 13 minutes remaining in regulation as her shot from the top of the box off of a Howell corner kick found the outside of the far post.
After the near-misses, Howell finally knotted the game at 1-1 with 8:30 remaining, connecting from inside the six off of Lauren Stewart's corner kick. King had earned Auburn the corner when she blistered a shot from 25-yards out that Kansas goalkeeper Colleen Quinn could not hold onto just outside the far post.
"Lauren hit an excellent, in-swinging corner to me and it just found me head and went in the goal. It was all Lauren," Howell said.
"I felt like it was just a matter of time before we scored in the second half as I thought we should have scored on a couple of others," Hoppa added. "Caitlin did a great job of creating that corner and Becca did a great job of getting a head on it. She came up big right when we needed her to."
Kansas' opening-half goal came off of an free kick, with Emily Strinden finishing the job with a shot to the lower-left corner past Allison Whitworth. Erin Lewis and Lauren Jackson assisted on the goal.
Jenn Johnson had the best chance to win it in the first overtime with a header from 13 yards out off of a Stewart free kick but it sailed high over the crossbar as the final seconds ticked off the clock, sending the contest into a second overtime.
King's first shot in the second overtime was close to ending it with 7:10 left as the KU keeper misfired on her goalkick right to King. King then streaked in and drew the keeper out but her shot from 15 yards out across the box slid just wide of the near post, keeping the game going.
Auburn finished the game with 13 shots while Kansas had 12.
The Tigers return to the field on Monday night, Sept. 3, at 7pm HT, with a match against the host Hawaii Rainbow Wahine.