The South Carolina women’s soccer team closed out non-conference play Thursday night with a dominant 3-0 win over the UNCG Spartans. Chelsea Drennan led the Gamecocks with two goals on the night.
The Gamecocks (7-0-1) dominated the first half; they had 18 shots, with the combination of Drennan and McCaskill accounting for 10 of them. Defensively, they prevented USCG from gaining momentum of any kind, as the Spartans were unable to muster any real attacking plays and managed only two shots in the entire half. This great defense is nothing new though, as the Gamecocks have still yet to cede a goal in the first half of any game this season.
The second half was much of the same as South Carolina continued their dominance by controlling the ball. The Carolina defense maintained its stringy play from the first half, preventing the UNCG offense from getting a shot for the first 23 minutes of the half, even making that their only shot in the second half. Carolina finished the game with 28 shots total, compared to just 3 by UNCG.
The first goal of the game came in the 12th minute of play, when the ball ricocheted off of a defender and bounced toward the top of the box into the vicinity of junior midfielder Dominique Babbitt. From there, Babbitt took one step, planted on her left foot and volleyed the ball off of a large bounce over the swarm of players in front of her and past the unsuspecting UNCG goalkeeper, who had no time to react. But the Gamecocks were just getting started on the night.
Chelsea Drennan took over, scoring two goals, both of which came off of headers. Drennan, who came into the game one assist away from tying the South Carolina career record for assists, looked to be in all-out attack mode, scoring as many goals this game as she had in the seven games prior and having one less shot in this game, 5, than her total thus far on the season, 6.
On Drennan’s performance, Coach Shelley Smith said, “Chelsea is just a real quality player, a captain that has led us, and I’m glad that she could be rewarded with some goals tonight.”
Drennan, however, did not have an assist on the night and will be forced to wait until Sunday to see if she can tie the school record of 33. She currently has 32.
South Carolina enters conference play Sunday against Auburn, looking to win their eighth straight game.