AUBURN, Ala. – The Auburn soccer team (2-0-0) finished off its opening week of action with a 2-1 win against No. 18 South Florida (1-1-0) Sunday afternoon at the Auburn Soccer Complex.
Jessie Gerow scored for the second straight game while Jaelyn Gadson netted her first goal of the season. Treva Aycock tallied her first point as a Tiger with an assist, and both Bri Folds and Rocio Sanders pitched in on Gadson's goal.
Nineteen Tigers saw action in the match, including five that went the distance. Goalkeeper Sarah Le Beau made eight saves with six coming in the first half and led a defensive unit that nearly pitched a shutout against 20 shots.
"I liked our resiliency and our willingness to battle," head coach Karen Hoppa said. "South Florida is strong, physical and experienced, and it threw us off for a while as a young group. I felt good about our group growing into the game and keeping our composure. Obviously to get two goals, we're really happy about that as well."
Gerow got Auburn on the scoreboard with her second goal of the season in the 21st minute of the match. Aycock fired off a shot inside the box but goalkeeper Sydney Martinez knocked it away. However, Gerow was there for the rebound and put it into the back of the net to give the Tigers an early advantage.
"We definitely strategized a little bit before the game as to what we were going to do, and we did a good job of settling the ball down and seeing what we had," Gerow said. "We worked really well off each other. It's a good start. We all did it together."
Coming out of halftime, Gadson doubled Auburn's lead in the 59th minute when she got her right foot on a pass from Sanders and flicked it past Martinez. The goal was Auburn's third of the season off a set piece and Folds and Sanders played a nice give-and-go off the corner kick.
With time running out on the Bulls, South Florida was able to get on the scoreboard in the 89th minute as Kelli Burney scored on a header off a corner kick. However, it was too late as Auburn defended one final run from the Bulls en route to the win.
Auburn remains on The Plains and hosts a pair of games next week. The Tigers will take on UAB Friday at 6:30 p.m. CT before closing out the week vs. Louisiana-Lafayette Sunday at 2 p.m.
Resiliency Leads Auburn Past South Florida
