St. Georges Wills No. 16 WVU to Win

Sunday, October 7

Morgantown, W.VA.

1:00 p.m.

West Virginia University

8-3-3, 4-1

Texas

10-2-2, 2-2-1

Team	1	2	Final F
Texas	1	0	1
West Virginia	0	2	2

Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks

October 07, 2018 04:48 PM | Women's Soccer

Box Score Box Score Season Stats Photos Nikki Izzo-Brown Postgame

By: Shannon Wolfgang

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Late-game heroics from senior defender Bianca St. Georges pushed the No. 16-ranked West Virginia University to a 2-1 victory over No. 13 Texas this afternoon in front of 2,081 fans at Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium.

Down 1-0 in the 77th minute, the Mountaineers (8-3-3, 4-1) earned a break when Texas was whistled for a foul inside the box. St. Georges swiftly stepped to the line and buried her second penalty kick of the season for WVU's equalizer.

Just 3:09 later, St. Georges tallied her first career game-winning goal. Senior forward Hannah Abraham's cross was headed out of the box by a UT defender. St. Georges pounced on the ball. After beating one defender, she directed a left-footed shot from just inside the box toward the right post and away from the outstretched hands of UT goalkeeper Nicole Curry.

"Look at what Bianca did. Everything was playing against us today, but with adversity we found true character and responded," WVU coach Nikki Izzo-Brown said. "You could see the girls went into overdrive and had a no-quit mentality.

"We didn't want to have any regrets. If you are given a little, you have to give more. We had a goal called back, and the girls kept pushing, and that's not easy. Mental toughness stepped up, and that's where our seniors came in."

The Mountaineers are the first team this season to score more than one goal against the Longhorns (10-2-2, 2-2-1).

St. Georges' offensive showing is her first career brace. She now shows five career goals and 23 career points (5 G, 13 A).

"Bianca has the biggest clock when it comes to moving, moving, moving – she is nonstop," Izzo-Brown said. "If there's someone to earn a goal, it's Bianca St. Georges. She never stops and just goes, goes, goes. I'm so proud of her."

"It's all about West Virginia pride," St. Georges said. "We were fighting for a lot of things today. We were fighting for breast cancer. We were fighting for our seniors. And, we were fighting for our program. This was a way for us to respond to Friday's game. We were very disappointed, and we weren't going to let this one slip today."

Today's victory, WVU's third of the year against a ranked foe, marks the Mountaineers' first win this season after allowing an opponent to score first. WVU moves to 4-1 in the Big 12 Conference and has not dropped a home conference match in regulation since 2007.

The Longhorns put WVU in a hole early. Forward Cyera Hintzen, the Big 12's leading scorer, pushed the ball ahead to forward Haley Berg. Following a quick move, Berg directed her shot from 16-yards out toward the far-left post.

The shot on-goal was the only one allowed by the Mountaineers today. Through five Big 12 matches, the WVU defense has allowed just five shots on-goal.

WVU finished with a 19-5 shot advantage and forced Curry into five saves, all in the first half. WVU also finished with a 9-0 edge in corner kicks, making UT the fifth team this season and the second Big 12 opponent to not earn a corner kick.

Senior forward Sh'Nia Gordon paced the field with four shots. St. Georges' two shots on-goal were a game best.

Play heavily favored the Mountaineers in the first half. Just three minutes into the match, Abraham pounced on a ball in front of the net and immediately put a shot on-frame. Curry made a late push for her first save.

Gordon's floater in the 16th minute looked to halt scoreless play, but it curved high at the last minute.

Curry found two more push saves late in the second half. The first was a stop on a shot from sophomore midfielder Stefany Ferrer-vanGinkel at the right post in the 37th minute. The second followed two minutes later, as she made a save on freshman forward Alina Stahl's low shot at the right post.

St. Georges nearly snagged an assist in the 54th minute. Looking for the equalizer, she sent a cross into the box. Senior midfielder Grace Cutler found the ball with the side of her foot, but the shot went wide.

With the win, WVU improves to 6-2-1 all-time against the Longhorns.

Of note, today's match, played in front of the fourth-largest crowd in program history, was a Pink Game promoting awareness for breast cancer.

The Mountaineers return to the road for three consecutive matches. Up first is a trip to Ames, Iowa, for a match at Iowa State on Friday, Oct. 12, with kick set at 8 p.m. EST.