The LSU soccer team saved its first Golden Goal of the season for the foe clad in black and gold.
Sophomore midfielder Fernanda Pina headed home a free kick from senior Alex Ramsey in the 95th minute, clinching a 2-1 overtime victory for LSU against Vanderbilt (3-4-2, 0-1 Southeastern Conference) Saturday night in Nashville.
The goal sent LSU home with a crucial win to open conference play and guaranteed an offensive onslaught didn’t go to waste.
The Tigers (5-3-1, 1-0 SEC) posted 28 total shots and 15 on goal for their highest output this season in both categories.
“That was probably our best full-game performance of the year so far,” said LSU coach Brian Lee. “To put up that many shots and shots on goal against an SEC opponent early in conference play is very encouraging.”
The wave of shots was LSU’s most since posting 30 shots — 15 on goal — against Mississippi State in a 6-2 win Oct. 17, 2010.
“That’s probably going to be one of the top outputs in the league all year,” Lee said. “It was just non-stop movement for us.”
That movement paid off in the final sequence.
After nearly earning the game-winner several times in regulation, the Tigers opened overtime by pressing the issue even more.
When Ramsey earned a free kick around midfield near the 94-minute mark, LSU had its golden opportunity.
Ramsey floated a ball near the 6-yard box, and Pina out-leapt a swarm of other Tigers to head home LSU’s first walk-off winner of the season.
“I thought, ‘This is my opportunity or the team’s opportunity to win it,’ and it came right to my head, and I just flicked it in,” Pina said in a news release. “We were probably unlucky not to finish them. … We deserved to win [Saturday].”
The goal was Pina’s team-leading fourth this season, tying the career-high she set as a freshman last year.
“[Fernanda] made a big commitment over the last nine months in terms of her strength and conditioning,” Lee said. “This quick start as a sophomore down to her own personal effort in the offseason. She was actually a little unlucky [Saturday] to not get two or three goals.”
LSU jumped on top in the 27th minute as sophomore Heather Magee headed home freshman Emma Fletcher’s winding corner kick.
But the Tigers came out sluggish in the second half, allowing the Commodores to even the sheet at 1-1 on freshman Simone Charley’s 51st-minute header, setting up the overtime theatrics.
Though it took extra time to down the Dores, Lee said the one-game weekend — part of the SEC’s new scheduling format — benefited both LSU and the quality of overall play in the game by ensuring fresh legs.
“It’s great, and Vanderbilt coaches would agree that quality of game for the entire way was very high and enjoyable,” Lee said. “That’s the way soccer is designed to be played, once a week. In a perfect world, we’d play one game for 18 straight weeks. It should create a more accurate final standings.”
For now, LSU is atop those standings, though a two-game weekend awaits LSU with a battle against NCAA Tournament-hopeful Tennessee on Friday.