Box Score
Samford Stats

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Samford's Malcanisha Kelley scored a pair of goals Sunday as the Bulldogs built a 2-1 second-half lead over South Alabama, but the Jaguars charged back to score twice in the final 20 minutes of action en route to a 3-2 non-conference victory held at the Samford Track and Soccer Stadium.
 
Both of South Alabama's late goals were scored by sophomore forward Charde' Hannah. The equalizer occurred at 70:34, while the game-winner was tallied in the 79^th minute.
 
"Charde' is an excellent player," said Samford head coach Todd Yelton. "She's extremely tough to go with one-v-one and on the last goal that we gave up, we were in the right spot to make the play, but we just didn't make it."
 
With the loss, Samford (1-1) suffered its first all-time defeat against South Alabama (2-0) and moved to 1-1-1 in the overall series.
 
The Jaguars, who opened the 2015 campaign with a 1-0 victory at Mississippi State on Friday, extended their regular-season winning streak to 20-consecutive matches. South Alabama has won back-to-back Sun Belt Conference titles and returned all 11 starters from last year's team that tallied a 19-3-1 overall record.
 
"South Alabama is a very good team," Yelton said. "I thought they were really composed and well-coached. All of the responsibility of this loss lies on my shoulders, because I think I went a little too conservative early in the match and they punished us for it."
 
Samford's Kelley opened the scoring Sunday in the 35^th minute as she notched her first of two goals in the contest. The Bulldogs' junior native of Childersburg gathered a pretty pass from Jermaine Seoposenwe and rifled a shot that beat South Alabama's goalkeeper Courtney Baum into the far right corner of the net.
 
Seoposenwe's assist, which proved to be her third of the season, split two defenders and neatly set up Kelley's one-v-one attempt.
 
Just eight minutes later, the Jaguars evened the match at 1-1 as Chelsea Followwell headed home a crossing pass from five yards out. She was assisted by senior Jordan Duncan.
 
Samford struck early in the second half for a second straight contest Sunday. At 48:28, just over three minutes into the final period, Kelley scored her second goal of the match and her third of the young 2015 campaign.
 
To give the Bulldogs a 2-1 advantage, Kelley secured a forwarding pass from Hallie Georgi, then bolted past a trio of South Alabama defenders and scored immediately right of Baum. Georgi's assist proved to be her first of the season.
 
"I thought Mac (Kelley) played a fantastic match," said Yelton. "I also thought Taylor Borman was very good in the first half for us. As the game went on, I thought that we lost our ability to compete and I think that was because I played it too conservatively early on. You can put this loss on me."
 
For the next 22 minutes of the match, Samford seemed to be in control of the contest, but then the Jaguars came through with a counter-attack score from Hannah to equalize the game at 2-2.
 
Then, just over eight minutes later, Hannah registered her second goal of the half, as well as the game-winning score as she one-timed a shot just outside of the diving reach of Samford goalkeeper Anna Maddox.
 
Both Ashlynn Jones and Nikki Shirtcliffe assisted on Hannah's decider.
 
"South Alabama did a great job of finishing their runs and punishing us with goals," said Yelton. "A 2-1 lead is tough, because if you do give up that second goal then the momentum swings. They closed up shop there with about 10 minutes to go and they were just better at it than we were."
 
Sunday's match, which featured two teams preseason predicted to win their respective conferences, included four yellow cards (three for South Alabama and one for Samford) and 35 combined fouls.
 
The Jaguars outshot the Bulldogs, 12-7, while Samford won the corner kick battle, 4-1.
 
The Samford University soccer team will next be in action Friday at 7 p.m. (CDT) as the Bulldogs continue their string of tough home opponents with a high-profile showdown against the Memphis Tigers to be held at the Samford Track and Soccer Stadium.
 
For quick score updates, breaking news and links to all of your favorite articles featuring the Bulldogs, please follow @SamfordSoccer and @Samford_Sports on Twitter.

Box Score
Samford Stats