CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. --- Austin Peay's Tatiana Ariza touched the ball on all four goals to spoil the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga's home opener, downing the Mocs 4-0 at Finley Stadium Sunday afternoon. The Lady Govs improve to 2-0 on the year while Chattanooga evens its record at 1-1.
Despite only taking two shots in the first half, the Lady Govs came away with a 1-0 lead at the break on a penalty kick from Tatiana Ariza at the 38:27 mark.
"We controlled the first half," UTC Head Coach J.D. Kyzer said. "We had four one-on-ones with their goalie in the first half, but we failed to take advantage of it. We have to capitalize on things like that. If we do, then it's a 4-0 lead for us at halftime and they're on their heels."
In the second half, the Lady Govs went up by two goals on a shot from Claire Pultz who received a pass from Tatiana Ariza who had a touch on all four goals. In the 55th minute, Ariza got off a pass from the left side to a streaking Pultz who received the pass right in front of the goal to put APSU up 2-0.
After that, the Mocs pushed forward a bit, playing more aggressive. As Tatiana Ariza raced toward the goal for the shot, Chattanooga keeper sophomore Taylor Mangrum (Franklin, Tenn.) charged out from the net to make the stop, but deflected the ball. A UTC defender in front of the goal failed to clear it out and Emily Perkins was there for Austin Peay scoring the third goal at the 71:51 mark.
The final goal was similar as Andy Quiceno came in from the right and was stopped by an aggressive Mangrum. However, Mangrum was unable to pull the ball in and the deflection fed right to Tatiana Ariza's foot for the easy score to put APSU up 4-0 in the 82nd minute. Tatiana and her sister Natalia are from Columbia and have just concluded World Cup play with the Columbian national team.
"Despite winning Friday, we didn't play as well as we would like to, but with such a short turnaround we were unable to correct our mistakes," Kyzer said. "We have a week before our next game, so we can go to the classroom, watch the video and talk about what needs to be fixed and how to do it.
"I know this sounds wrong with a 4-0 loss, but if we'd played the way we did Friday night, then this game could have been ugly."
UTC senior Donna-Kay Henry (Queens Village, N.Y.) led all Mocs with three shots with two each from juniors Kelsey Swann (Hixson, Tenn.) and Becca Smith (Murfreesboro, Tenn.). Mangrum managed six saves of the 10 shots on goal from the Lady Govs.
Chattanooga will remain at home to host Gardner-Webb Sunday at 1 p.m. at Finley Stadium. Admission is free to all Chattanooga home soccer games.
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August 21, 2011
