Sept. 26, 2008

Box Score

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - In Samford University's inaugural matchup in Southern Conference play, the Bulldog soccer team rallied for a decisive 3-0 win against the Elon Phoenix at Bulldog Field. Samford's Sarah Wilkinson, Amber Cress and Mary Shelton Bryant all scored goals in the victory.

"It felt good to get a win and I'm very proud of how our team played," said Samford head coach Todd Yelton. "It was definitely good to finally play at home again and the crowd was awesome. It was a great atmosphere for us here and I want to thank all of the fans for coming out and supporting us. Our players gave a great performance tonight."

With the win, Samford (2-7, 1-0 SoCon) opened conference play with a shutout victory and snapped a four-match losing streak. The Bulldogs' Wilkinson scored the game-winning goal during the 41st minute of play. The score was her team-leading second of the season.

On the scoring play, Samford's Cress initiated the attack as the she gathered possession on the far left side of the field. Along the sideline, the Bulldogs' speedy junior forward shook past a pair of Phoenix defenders and then outran another Elon player to turn the far corner.

Once Cress neared the end-line, she sprinted towards the goal and then found Wilkinson wide open in front of the net. Wilkinson gathered the easy pass from Cress and slammed the ball home.

"I knew that we were eventually going to score a goal," Yelton said. "I thought that we played pretty well in the first half, but scoring goals has been our struggle all season. Our players did a great job of overcoming that demon, so to speak, and when Sarah scored the goal, I bet they felt like the weight was lifted off their shoulders."

Samford's Cress and Bryant both added their first goals of the 2008 campaign in the second half.

Cress's score occurred during the 49th minute of play and was assisted by both Wilkinson and Kat Sweatt. Bryant's first goal of the season gave Samford its 3-0 lead and was assisted by Caroline Baxter and Brittany Gordon.

"I think that once we scored the first goal it was kind of the icebreaker," Yelton said. "We've come so close so many times this year and lost so many games 1-0 that once we scored the first one it gave us a great deal of confidence that we could score. Our players went on from there to put in a workman-like performance today."

The Bulldogs' Cayley Winters and Alyssa Whitehead combined for the shutout victory in goal. Winters started the match and played the opening 84:33 of the contest. With the win, she improved to 2-5 in goal this season.

With Friday's loss, Elon (4-3-1, 0-1 SoCon) had its three-game winning streak snapped in its first conference game of the season. The defeat was the Phoenix's first since a 6-0 setback against Old Dominion on Sept. 7.

Elon was led offensively by sophomore Brittany Hallberg. The Phoenix's explosive forward from Richmond, Va., paced the team with two shot attempts, both of which were on-goal.

"I'll tell you what, (Head coach) Chris (Neal) does a great job with that team," said Yelton. "They were very hard to break down, especially early going in the match. It just felt like when we were able to score our first goal that we were able to get a little bit of momentum. I think that Elon is going to do well in the league this season."

The Samford University soccer team will next be in action Sunday at 2 p.m., as the Bulldogs continue their opening weekend in SoCon play with a matchup against the UNC Greensboro Spartans at Bulldog Field.