AUBURN, Ala. (EETV) – Auburn Soccer took to its home field Friday night for NCAA Tournament action, eager to turn around a disappointing finish to regular season play and a quick SEC Tournament exit. The Tigers were able to right the ship emphatically, taking down the FIU Panthers 4-1 in a game Auburn dominated from start to finish.
The Tigers wasted no time getting their offense going, racing to the attack straight from the opening whistle. That early pace quickly paid off, as graduate midfielder Anna Haddock fired in a great ball that bounced around in the box before senior defender LJ Knox capitalized on it, firing the ball into the net for a goal that was confirmed after review to give Auburn an early 1-0 lead in just the fourth minute.
Auburn kept up its relentless attack, controlling most of the possession and staunchly defending any attempted run from FIU. The Tigers eventually earned a corner in the 23rd minute, their first of the game. Anna Haddock took the corner and found a waiting Jessica Osbourne in the box. The sophomore defender leaped above the FIU defense and headed the ball into the back of the net to extend the Auburn lead to 2-0.
FIU had just one good scoring chance in the first half, a 16th minute clang off the crossbar by Junior defender Catherine Rapp. Outside of that, though, the two teams played some back-and-forth soccer and took the game to the halftime break.
The second half had a very similar feel to the first, with the Tigers controlling most of the possession in their end and stymying any FIU attacks. The first 30 minutes of the second half passed without any change to the scoreboard, but then the floodgates opened.
In the 78th minute, sophomore forward Jordan Crosby took a great pass from Sammie Brown and made a quick cut inside, opening up enough space for her to rip in a low shot to the left side of the FIU net and give Auburn a 3-0 lead. Then, in the 80th minute, the FIU attack finally answered. A deep ball in ricocheted off of players from either side before finally being located and driven home by Catherine Rapp to make it a 3-1 ballgame.
Auburn finally capped off the scoring in the 84th minute as junior defender Hayden Colson found space after smart passes from Olivia Candelino and Becky Contreras and slipped the ball into the bottom right of the net to give the Tigers a 4-1 lead. The final six minutes of the game passed much more uneventfully, allowing the Tigers to come out on top and advance to the second round of Tournament play.
“I’m really proud of how we played,” Auburn Head Coach Karen Hoppa said. “We put in a lot of work since the early exit from the conference tournament, and I think that showed in the game tonight.”
Auburn is going to have to keep playing at that level, though, because the Tigers have now advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The Tigers will take on the 3-seed Ohio State Buckeyes in their first matchup, a team that Auburn beat at the Auburn Soccer Complex early in the season on Sept 8. Though, that’s no guarantee for an Auburn win.
“I think it’ll be a much, much better Ohio State team than what we saw earlier in the year,” Coach Hoppa said. “[It is] the third time we’ve played them now in a two year time period. My message to the team is ‘Hey, this is the rubber match.’ We need to approach it as a brand new game, and it’s going to be a tough, tough matchup.”
The game will take place on Nov 22 at Spry Stadium in Winston-Salem, N.C., as the second round will be hosted by 2-seed Wake Forest.
