Box Score

HAMMOND – Two second half goals by freshman forward Maiya Cooper sent Southeastern Louisiana to a 2-0 shutout win over in-state foe Louisiana-Lafayette in non-conference women's soccer action Sunday afternoon at the Southeastern Soccer Complex.

The Lady Lions (4-3) held a 16-9 shot advantage in the contest. All four of Southeastern's victories this season have been shutouts. Louisiana-Lafayette fell to 0-7-1 overall with the loss.

Cooper's two goals give her a pair of multi-goal matches to her credit and a team-high four goals on the season. The Lady Lions have allowed only five goals through the first seven matches. Sophomore goalkeeper Lacey Bockhaus had four saves for the Lady Lions, lowering her goals against average to 0.73.

“We came out strong in the first 25 minutes and created some opportunities, but couldn't find the net,” Southeastern head coach Blake Hornbuckle commented. “We were pleased that we came out with a lot of intensity. Our intensity, effort and work rate allowed us to be able to find the net twice and earn a hard-fought victory over a talented Louisiana-Lafayette team.

“Individually, Candice Wallace and Natalie Santana were tremendous in the midfield,” Hornbuckle added. “Candice displayed an outstanding work rate and was all over the field and Natalie's distribution was key to our attack. Maiya was relentless in the attack and did an outstanding job finishing a pair of goals. She's a great talent who is just going to keep getting better. All of our backs – Dana Mayer, Nicole Brannigan, Brittany Prieto and Kyle MacIntosh – were fantastic. Dana especially won a lot of balls and helped take Louisiana-Lafayette out of their attack.”

Both teams had near misses in a scoreless first half. Santana narrowly missed several scores and Lady Lion freshman Kerry McWhirter fired a shot that ULL goalkeeper Lauren Berlingo made a nice save on. ULL's Delaina McGee had a near miss for the Cajuns.

After Cooper had some near misses early in the second half, Southeastern broke through in the match's 67th minute. After a ULL foul just outside of the goalie box, Santana played a perfect free kick that Cooper headed in for a 1-0 Southeastern lead.

ULL mounted its best attack of the match just over a minute later. Megan Riley got free near the Lady Lion net and rifled a shot off the crossbar and over the net.

The strong right leg of Brannigan combined with Cooper's speed led to Southeastern's second goal in the 72nd minute. Brannigan boomed one of her patented long balls out of the Lady Lion backfield and Cooper out-ran the Cajun defense, corralled the ball and drilled it past a diving Berlingo for a 2-0 Lady Lion lead and the final margin.

Southeastern will return to action on Thursday, hosting Alcorn State at 4:30 p.m. at the Southeastern Soccer Complex.