Elsah, ILL-- The Principia women's soccer team made their match against Greenville College an exciting game to watch when they went into the second half trailing by a score of 2-1. Principia worked hard to overcome the deficit and would tie the game in regulation and go on to win in the second overtime 3-2.
Greenville scored the first goal of the game in the 19 minute. Principia's
Carlie Sanderude responded a minute later in the 20th minute to equalize the score with a 16 yard shot in the right side of the box. Greenville took the lead again scoring their goal off a corner in the 32nd minute, which lead to the 2-1 halftime score line.
The second half Principia earned the momentum and pinned Greenville down, bombarding them with waves of attacks. Several shots nearly missed, including three shots that bounced off of the woodwork. The tying goal came in the 77th minute when
Rachel Publicover blasted the ball past the keeper from the corner of the 18 off a pass from
Hayley MacWilliams.
Principia continued knocking for goals and had several more chances before the end of regulation. Their energy and desire carried into the two overtime periods with shots bouncing off of the frame and near misses. At one point the crowd and radio announcer went wild when they thought Alicia-Girbes Pierce scored a goal that hit the outside netting. Principia did not succumb to frustration. The golden goal for Principia came from a corner kick from Publicover that Sanderude buried in the back of the net with 1:03 seconds left in the game.
This week the women have one more game against Fontbonne this Saturday at 1:00 to wrap up the regular season.
The Greenville win establishes Principia as the number one seeded team in the SLIAC. This means that Principia will have home field advantage and play the fourth seeded team in the semifinal game of the two game SLIAC post season tournament. The SLIAC tournament winner will advance to the NCAA National Tournament. The semi-final game will be played at Principia at 7:00pm on Thursday.
