LOS ANGELES, California –
Trinity Watson scored a fantastic goal in the 105th minute, lifting the Pepperdine women's soccer team to a 1-0 overtime victory over PCH Cup rival Loyola Marymount in West Coast Conference play on Sunday.
The Waves (6-5-2, 2-1) had the better of play throughout and outshot the Lions (3-8-2, 2-1) by a count of 19-8. They had several excellent goal-scoring opportunities in regulation, most notably multiple tries by senior forward
Hailey Stenberg (Huntington Beach, Calif./Mater Dei HS) and junior forward
Joelle Anderson (San Jose, Calif./Harker School). Sophomore forward
Leyla McFarland (Bonita, Calif./Eastlake HS) put a header off the crossbar in the 39th minute.
At the other end, the Waves' defense collected their sixth shutout of the season. Redshirt freshman goalkeeper
Kinsey Ehmann (Paradise Valley, Ariz./Xavier College Preparatory) was only called upon to make two saves, though one came on a tricky header in the 80th minute.
The Waves enjoyed a player-up advantage for the final 16-plus minutes after LMU's Gabriella Marchal was red carded in the 89th minute. Junior forward
Devyn Gilfoy (Brentwood, Calif./Liberty HS) had her jersey pulled and was eventually knocked down on a breakaway just outside the box by the final defender.
GOALS
Pepperdine 105': With a little more than five minutes remaining in the contest, sophomore defender
Trinity Watson (Ocean Beach, Calif./Point Loma HS) got the ball in midfield and pushed the ball forward on the right side, and skipped past one defender until she was about 30 yards out. With open space in front of her, she hammered an unstoppable, perfectly directed laser that found the upper-left-hand corner of the net. It was her second goal in three games after scoring on a penalty kick vs. Portland last weekend, as well as the first two goals of her career.
STATS
Shots: Pepperdine 19, LMU 8
Shots on Goal: Pepperdine 7, LMU 1
Saves:
Kinsey Ehmann (Pepperdine) 2, Sadie Kenny (LMU) 6
Corner Kicks: Pepperdine 4, LMU 5
Fouls: Pepperdine 14, LMU 16
Offside: Pepperdine 0, LMU 2
QUOTABLE
Pepperdine Coach
Tim Ward said: "Everybody in the WCC is really good and LMU played really well. But I thought that was one of the better games we've playued all year. We did a nice job controlling the tempo of the game. We created a lot of really good moments for ourselves. It's unfortunate that it had to go to overtime but what a way to win the game.
Trinity Watson, that's a top-10 play on ESPN, that's a world-class strike."
Trinity Watson said: "It was such a great feeling. As a team we worked so hard for the 90 minutes and overtime. We talked about it's a team effort, we can do it, we just keep pushing through and we're not going to give up. It was just open for me and I took the chance. It went into the back of the net and it was such a great feeling to have the bench come running over."
NOTABLE
- The Waves beat LMU for the third year in a row and improved their all-time record to 15-8-5 in the series. It's the fourth time Pepperdine has won in its last five trips to Sullivan Field.
- This was Pepperdine's first overtime victory since 2016. The Waves were 0-1-9 in their last 10 overtime games.
- After four Pepperdine-LMU meetings in the 2019-20 school year for the all-sport PCH Cup series, the Waves are 4-0 and lead the competition 5.5 to zero.
NEXT
Pepperdine is back home next Saturday (October 19) with a 1 p.m. contest against Gonzaga. It will be shown online via the WCC Network.
