Trailing by two goals just 19 minutes into the match the Auburn soccer team stormed back with four unanswered goals to claim a 4-2 win over South Carolina on Friday night. Four different players scored for Auburn, including a pair of freshmen in Natalie Donaldson and Kala Faulkner, who each scored for the first time this year.

 

“Obviously we never want to go down 2-0 but I think this game showed what this team is capable of,” Auburn Head Coach Karen Hoppa said. “For us to be able to come-from-behind and put four goals on the scoreboard against a quality team like South Carolina really shows the potential of this team.”

 

Bianca Sierra started the comeback as she converted on a penalty kick after freshman Alexa Allen drew a foul inside the 18 to draw Auburn (6-6-0, 2-3-0 SEC) within a goal, 2-1, 34:30 into the match.

 

The game stayed that way through halftime before Auburn busted out of the intermission, putting five shots on goal after mustering just two in the first 45 minutes. Auburn’s intense pressure finally paid off in the 59^th minute when Donaldson streaked in to finish off a Maddie Barnes feed out to the top of the box to tie the match at 2-2. Donaldson, who started the second half after coming off the bench to play 20 minutes in the first half, sent in a low liner that South Carolina goalkeeper Sabrina D’Angelo was partially screened on, causing a late reaction.

 

“Tatiana Coleman made a great near-post run which got us the ball and then Maddie laid it off to me,” Donaldson said. “I shot it left-footed and it went off a player and in.”

 

It took less than eight minutes for Auburn to completely turn the tables on South Carolina as Faulkner went 1v1 with a defender a step outside the box before blasting a shot past D’Angelo.

 

“The first half I had a chance to score but it went wide and as a defender you don’t get a chance to score much,” Faulkner said. “Last weekend was one of our best possession weekends and that flowed over into this game. I overlapped Mary Coffed and I didn’t see anyone in the box so I cut it back and saw it was open so I just shot.”

 

Coleman iced the game in the 76^th minute when she bombed in a 25-yard blast to the opposite upper 90 for her third goal of the season.

 

Both of South Carolina’s (3-5-3, 0-3-2 SEC) goals came off the foot of Danielle Au as she twice finished off South Carolina corners following rebounds. The first came in the 14^th minute, the earliest Auburn had allowed a goal this year, as she collected a blocked shot rebound. The second was just six minutes later as a Stevi Parker shot hit the crossbar and went right to Au’s feet.

 

The four goals were the most scored by Auburn in a SEC match since it defeated Kentucky, 4-1, in the 2011 conference opener. It was also the most allowed by South Carolina, which had allowed just seven goals coming into the match, since a 4-2 loss to Alabama in 2004.

 

Auburn returns to the field at 2pm on Sunday when it plays host to Ole Miss.

 

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