BATON ROUGE, La. — Malorie Rutledge, the Southeastern Conference’s leading scorer, connected on her eighth goal of the season in the 63rd minute to lead No. 17 LSU to a 1-0 win over Vanderbilt Friday night at the LSU Soccer Complex.
Rutledge’s goal at the 66:30 mark in the second half, her eighth of the year, came on a rocket shot from 30 yards out that went inside the left post.
The win was the fourth straight for the Tigers who moved to 11-2-0 overall and 5-2-0 in the SEC. The Commodores valiant comeback attempt after the goal fell short as they drop to 8-6-1 and 2-5-0 in league play.
“I was extremely proud of the way our girls competed in the second half,” said Vanderbilt head coach Ronnie Coveleskie. “We stuck to our game plan and executed much better and I think it really became a back and forth contest. I give LSU a lot of credit, they had a lot of players in the box defensively and did not put a bad touch on it every time we tried to score a goal.”
Candace West had a free kick from the right side, just outside the 18-yard box 12 minutes into the game that was blocked. It was the Commodores only shot of the first half, while LSU had four with two of them denied by keeper Rachel Bachtel.
West added a shot from the center from 20 yards out eight minutes into the second half that sailed just high. A minute later the Commodores had another scoring attempt inside 10 yards as Molly Kinsella controlled the ball and passed to Nicole Lukens whose diving shot was just wide to the left.
Hannah Gonzales had a shot attempt from five yards in front of the goal that was blocked.
After Rutledge’s goal the Commodores turned up the intensity and controlled possession the rest of the second half. After neither team attempted a corner kick in the first period, VU held a 5-2 advantage in the second. Vanderbilt had 10 shots in the second half, compared to six for the Tigers. The final total was 11 shots with four on goal for VU.
Molly Kinsella led the Commodores with four shots, two on goal, while Candace West, Hannah Gonzales and Amy Wilcox added two of their own.
“I got some great minutes from some young freshmen today as well,” added Coveleskie. “Emily Grant started and did a fantastic job of controlling LSU’s dynamic midfield and Lindsey Wilcox came off the bench and competed and created some great looks on frame.”
VU will close out its four-game road trip against Arkansas on Sunday at 1 p.m. The Razorbacks are 10-5-0 after defeating Kentucky 3-1 on Friday night.
