SILOAM SPRINGS -- Junior Lauren Walter scored two goals and junior Alyssa Henderson recorded her fifth goal in five games, vaulting the No. 22 John Brown University women's soccer team to a commanding 4-0 victory over Wayland Baptist (Texas) in the Sooner Athletic tournament semifinal round on Monday night (Nov. 7) at Alumni Field.
Freshman Lillian Johnson added a pair of assists, and senior Chloe Griffin and the JBU back line recorded its ninth clean sheet of the season, the sixth for Griffin.
Freshman Aubrey Winter tacked on a fourth goal in the 76th minute – her second of the season – cementing a contest that saw the second-seeded Golden Eagles (14-4-0) hold a 19-9 shooting advantage over the visitors. The sixth-seeded Pioneers (5-8-4) recorded seven of its nine shots after head coach Dr. Kathleen Paulsen emptied her bench, allowing reserves valuable postseason time. Despite the chances in the latter stages of the second half, WBU was unable to place any of its nine shots on target.
Walter's sixth two-goal brace of the season started early – just 3:11 into the match – on John Brown's first shot attempt of the night. On the counter-attack initiated by a clear from senior Aubrey Mendez, a quick combination passing play from Henderson to sophomore Elise Bosma to Walter broke the league's leading scorer through the Pioneer back line. With Wayland's keeper Kanade Morita stuck in no-man's land, Walter held the ball briefly before poking a shot to the right side of goal for a quick JBU lead.
The goal was Walter's third game-winner of the season, and she would later add her third tally of the postseason in the second half.
While out-shooting the Pioneers by a 14-1 margin in the first half, John Brown added one more goal before the break, when Henderson's rip off the crossbar an in came as a result of battle from the Golden Eagles in the box. Freshman Olivia Fish's free kick landed in the goal area, causing mayhem, but finally the ball was poked free by Walter. Despite glancing off a Pioneer leg, Johnson was able to direct the ball back to Henderson, who one-touched a perfectly placed ball to the far right side crossbar and down, besting Morita and the Pioneer defender standing on the goal line.
Since Oct. 22, Henderson, the recently named Sooner Athletic Offensive Player of the Week, has come off the bench to provide John Brown with five goals – including the game-winner versus Southwestern Christian (Okla.) in the quarterfinal round. For her efforts, the Stillwater, Okla. native made her first start in tonight's contest.
With an insurance goal secured, the Golden Eagles added two more in the second half for good measure – one off an individual effort by Walter to retrieve and errant ball before weaving through five Pioneer defenders before depositing a shot to the right side of goal – and another from Winter that ended a 16-match goal drought after the newcomer scored in the season-opening win at Evangel (Mo.).
The Pioneers came close to finding its first of the match in the 65th minute, but Tobi McCoy's attempt on goal skimmed off the top of the crossbar and harmlessly out of play.
With the win, John Brown continues onto the championship match for the ninth time in 10 seasons under Paulsen, where the Golden Eagles are 3-3-2 with four tournament titles to their credit in 2013, 2016, 2020 and 2021. The JBU-USAO matchup in the finals has become a fixture in recent years, with the teams battling it out now in seven of the last eight seasons. The home side has won six of seven meetings in those matchups where the league's lone autobid was at stake.
The two sides will square off for the title on Thursday night (Nov. 10) at McLaughlin Field at 7 p.m. The championship match will be carried live on the SAC Sports Network.
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