LAKEWOOD RANCH, Fla. – Erica Roberts had never scored a collegiate goal before her 101st minute strike sent the East Carolina soccer team past Charlotte in the American Athletic Conference Tournament, 1-0, on Monday afternoon at the Premier Sports Campus.
The double-overtime victory sends the Pirates to the Semifinal Round where they will face the winner of Monday afternoon’s contest between two-seeded South Florida and seven-seeded North Texas.
The game started out as so many tournament affairs do: defensive and tactical with neither team wanting to make the fatal mistake and see their season end. That’s not to say that there weren’t chances, there were plenty, particularly in the second half of the game.
Charlotte (4-8-7, 3-2-5 AAC) had one of those changes in the 63rd minute when the ball went off of an ECU (9-3-6, 5-2-3 AAC) defender and off of the post before Annabelle Walker saw her shot sail off target on the rapid-fire rebounding chance.
The Niners got another juicy chance near the end of regulation in the 87th minute when Maeve English made what may have been the save of her career to stop an Amelia Brown shot in the center of the goal before Evie Craven’s first-timer went awry on the second chance.
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