The Missouri women’s soccer offense was well aware that their foe, undefeated Auburn, hadn’t allowed a goal coming into their matchup Friday night.
But when sophomore forward Savannah Trujillo found just enough space to unleash a shot into the back of the net, Auburn’s defensive streak spanning 568 minutes through six full games ended.
“We knew that they were going to be a good team, but we also knew that we were ready for anything that was going to be thrown at us,” Trujillo said.
Mizzou handed No. 9 Auburn its first loss with a 2-1 victory in their Southeastern Conference opener Friday night at Walton Stadium.
While Auburn had their own defensive streak, Mizzou had an offensive drought. With Trujillo’s score, the Tigers had their first goal in three games; 44 shots and 257 minutes of play later.
The Tigers last scored Aug. 30 when redshirt senior defender Lauren Flynn won the game in overtime against Purdue. But that would be the only goal scored by a Mizzou player for the next 12 days. The following two games resulted double-overtime 0-0 draws against Oregon State and Northwestern.
“We’ve got good forwards,” associate head coach Don Trentham said. “We’re capable of scoring goals. It was coming for us. The ball hadn’t bounced right the past couple games for us. We felt that the goal was coming. We knew it would come.”
Goals were still hard to come by Friday night for the Tigers, but this time the Tigers of Auburn. Mizzou’s defense only let up one goal on 12 shots, the goal coming from a penalty kick in the second half. Auburn averaged 1.83 goals per game going into Friday’s action.
Mizzou’s first goal came when sophomore forward Jessica Johnson flicked a ball to Trujillo in the box. She took one touch and shot the ball past the diving Auburn goalie for the tally.
Action became hectic in the 65th minute when, immediately after a header goal by Mizzou sophomore midfielder Alli Magaletta, Auburn received a penalty kick in the box. Auburn midfielder Brooke Ramsier buried the shot into the upper left corner.
The quick retaliation by Auburn was a reality check for the Mizzou team.
“We can’t just sit and relax, and I think that picked up our game,” Magaletta said. “We pressured them until the very end and did what we needed to do to get the win.”
Auburn had multiple chances in the waning minutes to knot the score but could not capitalize against the Mizzou defense. The game ended with a 26-12 Mizzou advantage in shots, Mizzou improving to 3-1-3 on the season, meanwhile Auburn falling to 6-1-0.
Sophomore forward Allie Hess exited the match in the 30th minute with a head injury suffered after colliding heads with an Auburn player on a Mizzou corner kick. Friday was Hess’s first game back since the season opener. She had been sidelined with an ankle injury.
Mizzou head coach Bryan Blitz was absent from the sidelines Friday night, as he served a one-game suspension for receiving a red card in the Tiger’s previous game against Northwestern.
Instead, the home team was led by Trentham, who led the Tigers to their first victory over a top-10 team since defeating No. 7 Florida 1-0 on Sept. 29, 2013.
“The players have worked very hard this year,” Trentham said. “They’ve been unfortunate to get some ties. They were rewarded tonight for that hard work.”
Blitz will be back on the sidelines Sept. 13, as his Tigers return to the pitch to face Nebraska at 1 p.m. at home. The match will conclude non-conference action for Mizzou.