Sept. 22, 2013
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AUBURN, Ala. - The Auburn women's soccer team rolled past Southern Mississippi, 6-0, Sunday afternoon at the Auburn Soccer Complex. With the victory, Auburn moves to 4-4-1 on the season as junior goalkeeper Alicen Wright earned her first win and shutout of the season.
Auburn received goals from junior Chelsea Gandy-Cromer, sophomore Logan Beal, junior Tori Ball, sophomore Haley Gerken, freshman Casie Ramsier and freshman Taylor Wagnon. The Tigers tallied 19 shots in the match with 10 corner kicks, seven coming in the first half. For Wagnon and Gerken, it was their first goals of their collegiate careers.
"We really wanted to press on the defensive side," Auburn head coach Karen Hoppa said. "Our offense, too, was firing on all cylinders especially in that second half. It was great to see a lot of people get a lot of looks at the goal and have a lot of different goal scorers today. It was really positive for our team."
Gandy-Cromer scored the winning goal of the match not long into the first half. Her third goal of the season came in the 14th minute after she received a nice pass from Ball just outside the goal box.
Auburn found the back of the net again, 15 minutes later, after Beal dropped in her first goal of the season, connecting on a cross from sophomore Kala Faulkner to give the Tigers the 2-0 lead as the match hit halftime.
The Orange and Blue got back to their scoring ways almost 16 minutes into the second half as Ball extended the Tigers' lead to three in the 60th minute. Ball took advantage of a rebound off the Southern Miss goalkeeper, Brittany Taylor, earning the unassisted goal, her third of the year .
Auburn stayed on the gas pedal as just two minutes later Gerken scored her first collegiate goal when Taylor's attempt to punch away Bianca Sierra's free-kick was stopped by Gerken, who put it in the back of the net.
Eight minutes later, Ramsier punched in her fourth goal of the season, scoring off a nice header after getting the cross from Gandy-Cromer right in front of the net. With the score today, Ramsier has scored in four of Auburn's last five matches.
Wagnon finished off the Tiger scoring for the day as she also notched her first collegiate goal in the waning minutes of the match. Wagnon blasted a cross from Brooke Ramsier into the corner of the net from just outside of the box giving Auburn the decisive 6-0 finish.
Auburn will hit the road for their next match as it will travel to Columbia, S.C. to take on the South Carolina Gamecocks on Friday, starting at 6 p.m. CST. It will then travel to Oxford, Miss. to face Ole Miss on Sunday at 1 p.m. All matches can be heard locally on WEGL 91.1 or online at AuburnTigers.com.
For complete coverage of the Auburn women's soccer team, log on to AuburnTigers.com, follow the team on Twitter, @AU_Soccer, or 'like' its page on Facebook, AuburnSoccer.