ROCK HILL, S.C. – After a disappointing 1-0 loss to reigning regular-season champ High Point this past Saturday, Longwood senior captain
Janese Quick challenged her team to step up on the front line.
It took the Lancers (6-4-1, 1-1-0 Big South) 78 minutes into Wednesday's Big South showdown at Winthrop, but the message sank in.
Freshman
Emily Mothersbaugh punched in her team-leading third goal of the season in the 78th minute, and junior
Kathryn Miller followed with another score eight minutes later to send Longwood to a 2-0 road win over Big South foe Winthrop at Eagle Field.
Those two goals punctuated a dominant effort on both ends of the field that saw the Lancers outshoot Winthrop 19-6 en route to their Big South-leading fifth shutout of the season. Mothersbaugh's goal came on the rebound of a long-range shot from junior
Kelly Almeida, while Miller's follow-up score was an unassisted rocket through traffic to the upper right corner.
"Well that was difficult, and we didn't expect anything less from a very organized and resilient Winthrop team," said Longwood head coach
Todd Dyer, who improved to 5-0-1 all-time against Winthrop. "We had some great chances early, and their keeper made some huge saves. We just had to regroup at halftime and keep banging on that door. Eventually we got the breakthrough that our players fought very hard for."
Mothersbaugh's and Miller's goals were enough to back a four-save shutout from senior goalkeeper
Maria Kirby, her Division I-record 21st clean in a Longwood uniform. Kirby and the Longwood defense allowed Winthrop (3-5-1, 0-2-0 Big South) four shots on goal and lowered their Big South-leading goals against average to 0.64 in the process.
However, Kirby's four saves were just a one piece of the effort, which also included marathon 90-minute performances from All-Big South first team defender
Sydney Wallace and freshman backfield mate
Carrie Reaver.
"After the loss against High Point, we knew we needed to step up our level of play to get a win. That's what we did today," said Wallace, whose 78th-minute free kick from near midfield initiated the sequence that produced Mothersbaugh's game-winner. "We came together as a team and held our shape until the opportunity opened for us. We didn't give up on anything, and together we showed a lot of grit."
Wallace displayed some grit of her own in the 65th minute when she blew up a Winthrop breakaway by forward Natalie Royaards, who snuck through Longwood's defense, corralled a through-ball and took it all the way to Longwood's 18. Wallace stayed on her hip the entire way and poked the ball away with one well-placed touch from behind just as Royaards was switching feet to take on a charging Kirby.
That defensive stand would be one of the final opportunities the Eagles got on Longwood's net. Kirby dispatched Winthrop's last two attempts, including a late diving stop through traffic, to keep intact Longwood's 5-0-1 all-time record against the Eagles.
The win offsets the narrow 1-0 loss to High Point from the conference opener this past Saturday and moves the Lancers back to .500 in the league standings. Longwood will have the opportunity to improve on that mark this Saturday when they return to The Palmetto State to face Presbyterian in Clinton, S.C.
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