Oct. 12, 2008
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -
In the span of three minutes, Katy Frierson turned what looked to be a loss into a key victory for Auburn as she scored twice in the final 11 minutes to lead Auburn to a 2-1 win on Sunday at Arkansas. The win improved Auburn to 7-6-2, 3-2-1 SEC while Arkansas dropped to 9-5-0, 2-4-0 SEC.
Auburn needed the freshman's heroics as time was running short with Auburn trailing 1-0 thanks to Arkansas' Abbey Wilburn's quick strike just four minutes after halftime to put the Razorbacks up 1-0 in the 49th minute.
With Auburn pressuring but coming up empty time after time in the second half, Frierson was finally able to get Auburn on the board in the 79th minute when she played coy with the Arkansas defense after taking a feed from Rebecca Howell in the top corner of the 18. After taking just a few steps, she pulled the trigger on a shot towards the opposite post that beat Arkansas keeper Britni Williams for her fifth goal of the season.
"Becca gave me a good ball and the defenders came at me and I slotted it far post," Frierson said. "We needed the goal because we were down and we had to win this game."
Just three minutes later Frierson scored her second game-winning goal in the last three games as she one- touched a cross from Jenni Prescott in the 82nd minute for the 2-1 lead and ultimately the win. Heather Havron had fed Prescott the first pass for her first assist of the year.
"Jenni had the ball on the far side and she just made a great cross. I made the near-post run that we have been practicing all season and it went in," Frierson said.
In her last seven matches, Frierson has collected all 17 of her points, scoring six goals and five assists.
"I was really pleased with the second half," Auburn Head Coach Karen Hoppa said. "We did not play with the same effort in the first half. Sometimes we start out slow but the girls did a great job of continuing to play. Hats off to Katy for scoring two brilliant goals."
The two teams played a scoreless first half that was mostly a field position game, with neither team dominating the possession time, though both teams were able to get a few good scoring opportunities. Auburn was also able to get three corners in the first 45, with the most effective coming in the 30th minute as Frierson put it into the far side of the box but Kara Kasten's shot was stopped by the legs of the Arkansas defense near the goal line.
Kasten had another solid scoring chance just over a minute a later as Frierson found her behind the Arkansas defense and inside the 18 but her shot went high over the crossbar.
Allison Whitworth was forced to make three saves in the first half as Arkansas took five shots but did not face any shots on goal in the second half as Auburn finished the match with 15 shots to Arkansas' nine.
Auburn will return to the Plains for a pair of matches next weekend, playing host to No. 10 Florida at 7:30pm on Friday and South Carolina at 2:30pm on Sunday.