BATON ROUGE, La. – Tatiana Coleman scored a goal and added an assist, the first time this season she has figured into two goals in a game, as the Auburn soccer team picked up its first Southeastern Conference win of the season with a 3-1 win at LSU on Friday night. The win evened Auburn’s record at 5-5-0 overall (1-2-0 SEC) while LSU fell to 4-3-3, 0-2-1 SEC.

 

“Any road win in the SEC is massive,” Auburn Head Coach Karen Hoppa said. “I am really proud of our effort and proud of our soccer. We possessed the ball way better than we did last weekend and that was something we focused on. Three great finishes all in the run of the play, it was fantastic.”

 

Auburn’s first shot on goal didn’t come until the 31^st minute but Mary Coffed made it count as she buried a Coleman cross into the back of the net for her fourth goal of the season. Coleman, who has assisted on all four of Coffed’s goals this season, had sent a cross into the box that traveled more than half the length of the LSU penalty box before an uncovered Coffed capitalized for the 1-0 Auburn lead.

 

The goal was the 15^th of Coffed’s career, which ties her with four others for 10^th all-time in Auburn history.

 

Coleman extended the lead to two, 2-0, 10 minutes later when she went 1v1 on an LSU defender at the top of the box and slotted a shot inside the left post. The goal was just the second of the year for Coleman, with Natalie Donaldson picking up her third assist of the year on the play.

 

“It always great to score goals,” Coleman said. “I have been feeling the pressure. I had to step it up tonight and play for the name on the front of my shirt, not the back of my shirt, and I worked really hard to get that goal.”

 

LSU came out of the half pushing the pace and it finally paid off in the 55^th minute when Fernanda Pina beat Auburn goalkeeper Amy Howard from 10 yards out to make it 2-1. The goal was the only one allowed by Howard, the Mandeville, La., native, who finished the night with five saves.

 

“It was really great to get this win coming off of two tough losses,” Howard said. “We made progress last weekend and we came and showed that here tonight.”

 

Auburn wasted little time in negating Pina’s goal as Tori Ball scored her fourth goal of the season just three minutes later, holding a defender off on her hip before beating LSU goalkeeper Megan Kinneman with a sharp-angle shot to put Auburn up 3-1.

 

“We always talk about the third goal being so critical and when they went 2-1 that is a very scary lead because they have the momentum,” Hoppa said. “The response we had to get Tori Ball’s goal within three minutes was fantastic and really ended their momentum and almost effectively ended the match because it was such a good response to their goal.”

 

The win was Auburn’s third straight for Auburn over LSU and its first in Baton Rouge since 2006.

 

Auburn remains on the road for its next match, travelling to College Station, Texas, for its first-ever meeting with new SEC member Texas A&M. Kickoff is set for 1:30pm.

 

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