Cairney’s late goal lifts women’s soccer over Troy
Senior midfielder/forward Tess Cairney in action during a loss against Pitt Sept. 13. On Friday, Cairney scored a goal in the 87th minute to lift App State past Troy 1-0 at the Ted Mackorell Soccer Complex.
September 25, 2020
App State women’s soccer earned a 1-0 home victory late against Sun Belt Conference rival Troy Friday.
Though defense defined the game, with each team remaining scoreless for the first 87 minutes, the Mountaineers broke through, with under three minutes left, on a goal from senior midfielder/forward Tess Cariney. From there, the team held onto their lead and secured the victory.
“It was so exciting,” said Cariney. “We had so many corners, and so many of them were close, so for that to be the (game-winning) goal, it was unbelievable.”
Though the Mountaineers had a season-high 11 corner kicks, the team was shut out from scoring until the final minutes. Cariney credited her team’s perseverance as the winning factor.
“We wanted it more, and at the end of the day, it was a grind-it-out game,” said Cariney. “It wasn’t always pretty soccer, but we wanted it more,”
The goal was the first of the season for Cariney, who tied for second on the team with two scores last season. She finished last season with 19 shots and six shots on the goal.
Though poor weather fell on Ted Mackorell Soccer Complex, head coach Sarah Strickland said that rainy weather was not the only obstacle her team had to overcome going into the contest.
“To only have three subs, while starting to worry about an overtime period, and people’s legs for Sunday, I thought they did a great job,” Strickland said. “I’m super proud of what we did, we’ve been getting better and better and sticking to the plan of executing,”
The Mountaineers battled for field position all game, and missed some potential scoring opportunities, but Strickland said the team can learn from the game heading into their Sunday matchup.
“The speed of play was a little bit too slow, and we were making decisions a little bit too slow,” Strickland said. “We need to show some clips tomorrow of those moments, but I thought some of our set pieces were dangerous, and we can work on being able to layer our runs.”
With their victory today, App State moves to 2-3 on the season and 2-1 in Sun Belt play. The Mountaineers look to continue their winning streak at home on Sunday, Sept. 27 at 12 p.m. against conference opponent South Alabama.
