Box Score
Box Score

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- With 1:17 left to play in double overtime, Samford's Michelle Moll gathered a pass from Malcanisha Kelley and fired the game-winning goal far into the right-hand corner of the net. Moll's goal, her fourth of the season, lifted the Bulldogs' soccer team to a thrilling 2-1 come-from-behind victory over the Francis Marion Patriots Friday in a non-conference match held at the Samford Track and Soccer Stadium.
 
"I have to give our team credit for fighting back today," said Samford head coach Todd Yelton. "I do think that we need to get better in front of goal though. If you look at what we did this weekend, we took something like 54 shots and only scored four goals. That's a bit disappointing for us, but a win is a win and we'll take it whichever way it comes out."
 
With Sunday's come-from-behind victory, Samford (11-4-1) improved to 2-0 all-time against Francis Marion (0-15) and moved to 7-1-1 at home this season.
 
The Patriots opened the scoring in the 51^st minute with a goal from Chanel Harris. On the play, Francis Marion's Yasmin Bunter gathered an errant Samford passed and dropped it over quickly to Harris. Harris then fired a 20-yard shot from the left flank all the way across into the top right corner of the net.
 
The goal was Harris' team-leading fifth of the season, while Bunter's helper proved to be her team-leading seventh assist of the 2013 campaign.
 
"Teams always play us very hard," Yelton said. "They respect us tremendously, so we never really get any freebies. On top of that today, it's hard to explain how we scored two phenomenal goals, but then we missed a bunch of tap-ins. We just need to keep working at it, keep battling and continue to get better every day in preparation for the SoCon Tournament."
 
Midway through the second half, Samford still trailed Francis Marion, 1-0.
 
In the 78^th minute, the Bulldogs' Kelley equalized the goal at 1-1 with her fifth score of the season. On Samford's critical goal, which occurred at exactly 77:44, Moll sent in a laser from the left side that caromed off the right post. The ball bounded back toward the middle of the field where Kelley zoomed in to collect it and fired the match-tying shot into the left corner of the net.
 
Moll was credited with her third assist of the season on the play.
 
Samford outshot Francis Marion, 28-12, but the match seemingly was headed to a 1-1 draw late in double overtime. The Patriots were doing their best to stall the match and to fire any loose balls far out of bounds.
 
Despite those odds, the Bulldogs kept charging in the double-overtime period as Trine Taule gained possession of the ball around midfield. Taule, Samford's senior native of Frekhaug, Norway, then sent a pass neatly upfield to Kelley in the left flank. She corralled the ball, took a couple of dribbles and then pushed the ball up ahead to Moll near the left sideline.
 
Moll, the Bulldogs' senior midfielder from Evansville, Ind., took Kelley's pass, juked her way around the final Francis Marion defender and beat the Patriots' goalkeeper Taylor O'Berry into the bottom right corner of the net. The score was Moll's fourth of the season and her second game-winner.
 
"It was a great finish," said Yelton. "She did a good job to beat the defender and then hit it really well with the right peg and got us a W. I thought Mac's (Malcanisha) goal was just as nice. That wasn't an easy finish by any means and she was very composed to put it away."
 
True freshman Dale Steinagle earned her first career start in goal Sunday and made three crucial stops. Samford's native of Murfreesboro, Tenn., faced a total of 12 shot attempts from Francis Marion and improved her record on the season to 1-0.
 
"Dale in getting her first start today had a great day," Yelton said. "If you look at it across the board, she challenged players all day and she controlled the box. I don't believe that she could have done anything with the goal that we gave away. I thought she had a great first match."
 
Samford started Sunday's non-conference contest with five freshmen and three sophomores. The only similar starters from Friday's night's loss to The Citadel were Shanika Thomas, Mary Grabowsky and Alissa Hansen. A total of five players all made their first career starts Sunday.
 
"Our younger players gave us a great effort today," said Yelton. "They played about the first 60 minutes or so of the match and I thought that they gave us everything that they had. They ran out of gas there in the second half, because those were significant minutes for most of those players. The best thing about was that they got the opportunity to compete and they stepped up to the challenge and did a good job."
 
The Samford University soccer team will next be in action Friday at 6 p.m. (CT) as the Bulldogs travel to Greensboro, N.C., for a key SoCon road contest against UNCG Spartans to be held at the UNCG Soccer Stadium (3,540).
 
For the most up-to-date information on Samford soccer please follow @Samford_Sports and @SamfordSoccer on Twitter.

Box Score