Second-half goals uplift Liberty
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Late goals by Megan Warner and Crystal Elmers give the Lady Flames a 2-0 victory against the Monarchs
Cruise control — Midfielder Madison Kauzlarich gains possession of the ball. Photo credit: Macklyn Mosley
Under the scorching heat of a Friday afternoon, the Lady Flames women’s soccer team took on the Old Dominion Lady Monarchs in their home opener at Osborne Stadium. The 2-0 victory marks the first win of the season for the Lady Flames.
Liberty senior forward Megan Warner and sophomore forward Crystal Elmers each scored in the second half to propel the Lady Flames to a victory over Old Dominion. Alanna Dunkle assisted both goals. In the 68th minute Dunkle passed the ball into an open space and Warner took a shot from just outside the penalty box to score.
In the first half, the Flames played an offensive game with 11 shots and four corner kicks taken, while the opposing team only took one shot and one corner kick. The Lady Flames added four more shots in the second half for a total of 15 and held Old Dominion to only two shots on goal in the game.
“It feels good to have scored (in) the home opener for the team and we have shown great team effort in defense as well.” Megan Warner said. “Our game plan was to play our target forward in the feet and dish off the ball to the midfielders for them to make the decision either to shoot it or to pass it to an open forward.“
Although the Lady Flames took a while to find their rhythm, Elmers thought they started to control the pace of the game in the second half.
“The game went off slow at first,” Elmers said. “But we started to piece more passes together, won more balls in the air, which led me into scoring the second goal of this game.”
Lady Flames Head Coach Jessica Hain acknowledged her team’s effort.
“Our offense was very effective in keeping their defenders under pressure.” Hain said. “We did a great job in challenging against the entire endline and not just a goal. So, attacking the endline created a lot of corner kicks for us, which opened up opportunities for goals.”
The Lady Flames will return to action Friday, Sept. 6 at 8 p.m. against Drexel University.