The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
Southern Miss
UAB Dominates Southern Miss in 6-0 Victory
10/1/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Oct. 1, 2010
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- The UAB women's soccer team jumped out to an early lead against Southern Miss and never looked back, upending the Golden Eagles, 6-0, on Friday night at West Campus Field. Five different Blazers found the back of the net paced by junior forward Carolyn Polcari's two goals and on the evening.
"We scored a lot of goals, but the thing that impressed me and that led to those goals was our defensive organization," head coach Paul Harbin said. "It didn't matter how many goals we scored, we wanted to get a shutout. When you score early, there's always that risk of letting down, but it was nice to see that we continued to press and continued to play well. Our goal was to keep our play quick and I thought we did a good job of that tonight."
The 6-0 win marks the most goals scored and largest margin of victory since UAB defeated Marshall, 6-0, in 2005. UAB improves to 5-5-1 overall and 1-1-1 in Conference USA, while Southern Miss falls to 3-7-1 and 0-3 C-USA.
Junior defender Pascale Pinard gave the Blazers the lead in the third minute with her first goal of the season. Pinard came up with a loose ball 20 yards out and fired a shot to the far post for the early 1-0 lead.
The Blazers added two more goals in a six-minute span later in the half. Junior forward Laura McCalla added her team-leading ninth tally of the season on a long-range shot into an open net, while Polcari knocked in her fifth goal after sidestepping a defender and taking a close-range shot.
UAB piled on one more goal before the break when freshman midfielder Abby Phillips notched her first collegiate goal. Pinard launched a corner kick into the box and McCalla tapped it to the head of Phillips who punched it in to make it 4-0 at halftime.
Sophomore midfielder Emily Sinovich got in on the scoring frenzy six minutes into the second half when she headed in a cross from Polcari. It marked Sinovich's first goal of the season.
Polcari added her second goal of the game in the 61st minute when McCalla sent a long pass ahead to the feet of Polcari. Polcari continued to charge, drawing Golden Eagle keeper Lindsey Schwarner from between the posts before she buried the ball into the net.
UAB goalkeepers Kate Blankenship and Alexis Braziel, who came on in relief of Blankenship in the second half, needed to make just one stop as the UAB back line shut down the Golden Eagle attack. The shutout marked the second of the season for the Blazers.
The Blazers return to the pitch on Sunday to host No. 25 UCF. Kickoff is slated for 2 p.m. at West Campus Field.
