Lincoln Memorial Tops Columbus State 7-3 in Cougar Invitational

COLUMBUS, GA -- Eighth ranked Lincoln Memorial erupted for five goals in the second half to break open a tight game and go on to a 7-3 win over host Columbus State in the Express Oil Change / Cougar Invitational here Sunday. The Lady Railsplitters move to 2-1 on the season, while CSU falls to 2-2.

The two squads matched each other goal-for-goal in the first half with LMU taking the early lead on a Danielle Dos Santos goal on a feed from Kristen Boujos in the 14th minute. CSU responded in the 18th minute with a goal by Kellie Myles as she took a deflection off a corner kick and punched it in for a 1-1 tie.

The Lady Railsplitters regained the lead at the 29:56 mark on a Hanna-Mari Toivonen unassisted goal to go up 2-1. CSU again responded quickly, getting a Brook Snyder goal at the 31:52 mark. Snyder was able to get a foot on a ball in the box that had bounced off a number of players and knotted the score at two.

In the second half, the two teams went at it again. LMU scored just under 11 minutes into play as Brianne Arsenault took a Toivonen feed and punched it past Monica Sanchez for the 3-2 advantage. CSU struck just under five minutes later as Megan Kell took a Snyder centering pass and fired it past Stephanie Kwoka to tie the score at 3-3.

The game then turned on a single play as Hannah Ospina was taken down in the box and awarded a penalty kick. Her boot toward the upper right corner of the goal struck the crossbar and bounced out. LMU picked up the ball and raced downfield where Camilla Verissimo found Dos Santos open in the middle for a shot and she made the most of it, beating Sanchez for a 4-3 lead at the 59:03 mark. That goal seemed to swing all of the momentum to the Lady Railsplitters.

Dos Santos completed a hat-trick 15 minutes later, taking an Arsenault pass and finding the net for her third goal at the 74:14 mark to make it 5-3. Heloisa de Oliveira added an unassisted goal just over two minutes later for a 6-3 lead, and Boujos got the final goal off a pass from Dos Santos at the 81:42 mark.

For the game, CSU out-shot the visitors 17-14, but Kwoka came up with seven saves. Of the 14 shots by LMU, nine were on goal and resulted in the seven goals and just two saves for Sanchez.

Next up for LMU is a home match with Mars Hill on Sept. 10 at 2:00 pm

(Release courtesy of Columbus State Sports Information)