A crazy finished Thursday night included: a Lindsey Eaton goal off the post, an Ole Miss goal called offsides, a Tiger handball inside the box that led to an Ole Miss penalty, and a big save by LSU senior goalkeeper Caroline Brockmeier.
Despite all of that, LSU (9-5-1, 3-3-1 Southeastern Conference) came out with a 3-1 win over the Ole Miss Rebels to get their second win in a row.
The first half was tightly contested, with both sides having a number of chances on goal. The Tigers had eight shots, with four on goal, and Ole Miss had five shots, with three on goal.
“[In the first half] we kind of almost wanted to win too badly and we froze ourselves with a desire to score after going down 1-0,” LSU coach Brian Lee said.
Ole Miss struck first in the 12th minute, when the Rebels’ offensive leader Cece Kizer crossed the ball in from the left wing to sophomore Channing Foster who shook her defender and finished from 8 yards out.
The Tigers had their first chance in the 10th minute off a corner from junior midfielder Marlena Cutura who whipped in a nice cross to freshman midfielder Abbey Newton but her header was saved by the Ole Miss keeper.
Throughout the first half, the Tigers did well to stay composed following the early Ole Miss goal, and the play of sophomore Tinaya Alexander in her new position as full-back certainly helped the Tigers backline be more potent on the attack and put pressure on the Ole Miss midfield.
In the second half, the Tigers came out firing on all cylinders.
In the 47th minute, senior Alex Thomas received a pass inside the box, and the Ole Miss keeper was forced to come off her line and knocked Thomas over.
The referee awarded the Tigers a penalty kick, and Thomas’ shot went right underneath the hands of the Ole Miss keeper who got a touch on the ball, but it was not enough to stop the shot from getting to the back of the net, tying the game 1-1.
The next 20 minutes belonged to the Rebels, as the ball stayed in their half of the pitch for the majority of that time, but the Tigers managed to keep a “bend but not break” mentality on the defensive side, not allowing Ole Miss to score on a few quality chances.
Around the 70th minute, things started to get intense, starting with the Cooke shot off the post.
The Tigers finally scored the go-ahead goal in the 74th minute when Thomas headed a ball across the box to Eaton who had her first shot go off the post, but was right in the path of the rebound and slotted the ball home to give the Tigers a 2-1 lead.
Just a few minutes following the Eaton goal, the Tigers got a corner kick in the 76th minute. A seemingly recurring connection between Cutura and Newton happened again, as Cutura found Newton at the back post and she was able to head the ball right under the crossbar to increase the Tigers lead to two.
The ensuing 15 minutes were just as exciting. In the 80th minute, the Tigers had two shots saved by the Ole Miss keeper and then a shot hit the post.
A few minutes later, the Tigers got called for a handball in the box, and Ole Miss was awarded a penalty kick. Kizer stepped up to the spot, and every Tiger fan in the stadium was sitting on the edge of their seats. Brockmeier rose to the occasion, and guessed the right direction pushing the shot out of bounds.
Ole Miss couldn’t muster any shots on goal following the penalty save, and the Tigers held on to move up to a tie for 6th place in the SEC standings.
The Tigers will travel to Knoxville next Thursday to take on the Tennessee Volunteers with a 6 p.m. start time on the SEC+ Network.