Oct. 26, 2014
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AUBURN, Ala. - It took a couple of extra minutes Sunday afternoon, but the Auburn soccer team was able to defeat Alabama 1-0 in overtime after a game-winner one-timer goal from senior Chelsea Gandy-Cromer. With the win Auburn claims the Iron Bowl of Soccer trophy for the third-consecutive year and also wins its third match in a row.
Auburn has upped its record to 10-5-3 for the season and 4-3-3 in conference play. It marks Auburn's eighth 10 or more win season in the last nine years. The loss drops Alabama to 10-5-3 overall and 5-3-3 in Southeastern Conference play. It also broke a four-match winning streak the Tide had coming into Sunday's match.
"It feels pretty awesome, I'm not going to lie," Gandy-Cromer said. "To not only be out here playing your rival, but to also be playing my last game on this field and be able to take home the trophy, it's an awesome feeling."
Like almost every Auburn-Alabama soccer match, both teams played hard-nosed defense for the first 90 minutes of play with neither side yielding a goal. But it only took one minute of overtime for the Tigers to finally break through and get the game-winner.
After having the ball ping pong around midfield, Auburn sophomore Casie Ramsier saw an opening on the left sideline and streaked downfield. With Gandy-Cromer making a nice run into the middle of the box, Ramsier placed a perfect pass as Auburn stayed onsides.
With the left foot, Gandy-Cromer had a storybook ending to her final Auburn home game as she sent her second shot of the game past Alabama's keeper Emily Rusk. It was her second goal of the season and Ramsier's fifth assist of the year.
"I told the team going into overtime that this was our advantage," Auburn head coach Karen Hoppa said. "We're at home, we're fresh and we had been in this situation so many times all year. We finally figured it out in the Arkansas game last week and that's the kind of energy we need to bring. What composure from the senior (Chelsea Gandy-Cromer), I'm really excited for her."
Sunday's win over Alabama was Auburn's sixth overtime game this season, but it only had one win in the extra frames, coming against Arkansas (2-1) last week. The Tigers were able to make it two overtime wins in a row after Gandy-Cromer's game-winner, which was her second of the season.
Redshirt sophomore Alyse Scott scored her 10th win of the season Sunday and eighth shutout of the season, tying her for fourth all-time in the career shutout records and tied for third for most shutouts in a single-season by an Auburn player.
The Auburn defense stepped up again against the Tide, not only winning its second-straight 1-0 match over Alabama, but also limiting the Crimson Tide to 13 shots with only one on target.
"We're playing really well right now and that's what we want," Hoppa said. "We want to be playing our best soccer at the end of the year and we've got ourselves in a good position. We're just going to try to keep our momentum going and try to play better on Thursday night against LSU."
Auburn will finish off the regular season on the road Thursday at LSU with game-time set for 7 p.m. Auburn was eighth in the SEC standings going into today's match with the Tide and will know where it stands going into the final match after all of today's soccer matches are complete.
For more information on Auburn soccer, visit AuburnTigers.com, follow the team on Twitter, @AuburnSoccer or follow them on Facebook at Facebook.com/AuburnSoccer.