A battle for sole possession of second place in the SEC ended in victory for the No. 13 Auburn soccer team, as they defeated No. 12 Arkansas 3-2 on Friday at the Auburn Soccer Complex. Both teams remained in a deadlock throughout the first half with the Tigers taking five shots and limiting Arkansas to three.
"Second half we knew it was going to be a dog fight," Casie Ramsier said. "Arkansas always comes out with so much energy and they’re physical and aggressive and we knew we had to match that."
The Tigers and Razorbacks came out fighting in the second half, but Auburn prevailed when Brooke Ramsier notched a goal from just outside the box to give Auburn a 1-0 lead in the 50th minute.
Kristen Dodson followed on an assist from Gianna Montini and Taylor Troutman in the 62nd minute for a 2-0 lead over Arkansas.
"It was chaos in the first half, up and down, 100 miles an hour," Auburn head coach Karen Hoppa said. "We wanted to still have the energy but also have the composure on the ball and I thought we accomplished that with a couple great goals in the second half."
Stefani Doyle capitalized for Arkansas, putting the Razorbacks on the board with a header over Auburn's Sarah Le Beau.
Casie Ramsier notched the final goal for Auburn in the 82nd minute to put the Tigers up 3-1. Arkansas scored one last time in the final five minutes to make the score 3-2. The win was Auburn's sixth conference victory.
"It was a great result for us," Hoppa said. "This wasn’t the best soccer game we’ve ever played but it was a great result and we’re excited and now we’ve got to start working towards LSU on the road it’s going to be a tough one.”
Auburn will hit the road to take on LSU in Baton Rouge on Oct. 20 and will continue on to Texas A&M on Oct. 23 before returning to the Plains for their final home game on Oct. 27.
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