The Wildcats opened up their Southland Conference play against the Houston Baptist Huskies at Elmer Grey Stadium on Friday. The Wildcats were able to take down the Huskies, 4-1, despite their slow offensive start.
The first goal of the night came from freshman Jordan Michie, in the 33rd minute, after junior captain Christina Arteaga passed it off to Michie, before she headed it in.
In the 37th minute, senior Shay Johnson was able to score her fourth goal of the season when freshman Natalie Jones fed her a ball and Johnson tapped it and scored 10 yards away.
Senior Samantha Vestal scored her first goal of the season when Jones assisted another ball in at the 41st minute, and Vestal nailed it in the back of the net, closing the first half with a 3-0 lead over HBU.
HBU was not able to score a goal in the past four games until tonight when freshman Xya Balderas was able to slip one in, past ACU goalkeeper Rachel Johnson for her third goal of the season in the 58th minute.
The final goal of the night came from Jones herself in the 69th minute when senior Peighton Starch passed her the ball for Jones’ fifth goal of the season. Jones is currently leading the team with the most scored goals.
It was a night of many shots coming from ACU and HBU with a total of 55, ACU leading 36-19. The Wildcats had 19 attempts in the first half and 17 in the second half.
Arteaga led shot attempts with six, Michie, Jones and Sophie Standifer with five each. Meanwhile, the Wildcats led 8-4 in corner kicks.
Abilene Christian has a 5-2 winning series over Houston Baptist. The Wildcats have won all the matches against the Huskies played in Abilene.
The Huskies were hoping to put an end to a six-game losing streak, after winning their season-opener against Prairie View A&M. However, North Texas, Texas State, Buffalo, #17 TCU, UTSA and now ACU have given them a difficult time.
ACU is 5-1-1 in Southland Conference and will get the rest of the weekend off.
Jones is feeling pretty confident in the Wildcats abilities moving forward into the Wildcats next upcoming conference matches.
“Going into conference 1-0, we’ll just keep pushing because we want to win the conference, and it just shows a good message to the rest of the teams in our conference,” Jones said. “We look good, but we can always improve. We will keep bringing the pressure to the other teams”
The Wildcats will return to the field next Friday, Sept. 27 in Thibodaux, LA to play the Nicholls Colonels at 4 p.m.
