Sept. 14, 2008
AUBURN, Ala. -
Junior midfielder Chelsea Yauch's second goal of the season was all the offense the Auburn soccer team needed as its defense limited Marquette to mostly long-range shots as Auburn won 1-0 on Sunday afternoon at the Auburn Soccer Classic.
"It is a lot easier for any team to play when you are up and the early goal really helped with our confidence," Auburn Head Coach Karen Hoppa said. "It wasn't a pretty game for us but we got the result that we needed."
Yauch scored Auburn's second-fastest goal of the season just 6:31 into the contest when she was able to blister a shot past Marquette keeper Natalie Kulla off of a Rebecca Howell cross that was pushed out by Kulla, who couldn't get back in time to make the save.
"Rebecca Howell did a great job. She dribbled down the line and gave a beautiful cross. Stephanie Fransoso made the near-post run that we have been practicing all week and that opened it up for me. I just saw the ball and figured I had to finish it," Yauch said.
Auburn's (3-4-1) defense had as much to do with the victory as any other facet of the game as almost all of Marquette's (4-3-0) 17 shots came from outside the 18 yard box, and those that were a threat went directly to the awaiting arms of Auburn goalkeeper Allison Whitworth.
"It was really a team effort today. We had people diving and blocking shots and clearing out corner kicks. They had a lot of shots but they had a lot from distance, which are easier to clean up. Our team blocked out most of the difficult ones," Whitworth said.
One such team save came just two-and-a half minutes into the contest as Kara Kasten cleared a ball headed in after an Anna Sawicki shot got through Whitworth. But after that it was all Whitworth, who finished with nine saves on the afternoon.
The shutout was the 16th of Whitworth's career and she is now just 21 career saves shy of being number two on Auburn's all-time saves list.
Auburn will play its final non-conference game of the season on Friday when it plays host to Samford at 7:30pm at the Auburn Soccer Complex.