JBU’s season ends in Round of 16

ORANGE BEACH, Ala. — It was anyone’s game with 45 minutes left, but No. 6-seed Southeastern (Fla.) struck twice in a span of 14 minutes in the second half to finish the 11th-seed John Brown University women’s soccer team’s season in the NAIA Women’s Soccer National Tournament Round of 16 with a 3-0 win on Tuesday night at the Orange Beach Sportsplex.

SEU’s Uchenna Kanu finished the contest with two goals, etching her year as the most prolific scorer in NAIA women’s soccer history as she netted her 53rd and 54th goals of the season.

Yulie Lopez broke the stalemate just 2 minutes, 33 seconds into the second half. Her original rip from the top of the box was blocked by senior Annika Pollard, but Lopez collected the carom and left-footed a curving shot to the far left side of the goal for the game winner.

With the Golden Eagles (16-5-1) pushing for the equalizer, a boot from the back line finally sprung Kanu through the JBU defense. She managed to squeeze a shot past oncoming sophomore Caitlyn Logan and off the left post and in for the insurance marker in the 59th minute.

Kanu added the third goal of the match with 19:26 remaining in the contest.

The Fire managed a narrow 5-4 shooting advantage in the first half but opened up a 10-4 margin in the second half to finish with a 15-8 mark.

John Brown kept the high-powered Fire (19-1-2) offense at bay in the first half as Logan pieced together her strongest showing of the season between the posts. Finishing the contest with five saves, Logan stopped Kanu and Aisha Solorzano in the first half, frustrating the Fire players.

In the strong chess match of the first half, the Golden Eagles had an opportunity to take a 1-0 lead, similar to what it did to Southeastern back on Sept. 1.

Senior Jastin Redman was hauled down inside the box and was awarded a penalty kick. SEU keeper Holly Eddins guessed correctly, however, as she stopped the Redman attempt and the Aspen Carpenter attempt on the rebound went just wide of the post.

John Brown will now graduate a remarkably successful senior class — one that rewrote the women’s soccer record books in numerous ways. The seniors posted a 65-16-4 (.788) mark over four seasons that included a pair of Sooner Athletic regular season championships and one tournament title.

This class of Jastin Redman, Aspen Carpenter, Hannah Sweaney, Annika Pollard, Anna Brown and Melody Hagen took the Golden Eagles to two trips to the NAIA National Championships and helped produce the program’s first-ever win at the big dance.