Mean Green soccer shuts out Charlotte

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Scott Sidway / Staff Writer

In front of its home crowd for the first time in 26 days, the Mean Green soccer team shutout the University of North Carolina – Charlotte 5-0 on Friday night and remains in first place in Conference USA.

“This is a tough place to play. We’re very happy to be home, because we’ve been on the road for a month,” head coach John Hedlund said. “You could tell the energy coming home.”

The North Texas (12-4-1, 6-1-1) offense erupted, especially after Charlotte goalkeeper Annika McHenry left the game with a concussion at the 18 minute mark. The Mean Green scored one goal against McHenry, but the remaining four came against backup Alex Weaver.

Junior forward Karla Pineda led the Mean Green charge with two goals and one assist on the night. She scored the team’s first goal in the 15th minute, scoring from the right wing and crossing the ball on the ground past McHenry into the left corner of the net.

“We knew that winning this game and going into the next one we put ourselves in a great position to win the title,” Pineda said. “We just came out hard and we executed every chance we got.”

North Texas took a 2-0 lead in the 60th minute from an Anna Flobeck goal assisted by sophomore forward Rachel Holden. It was Flobeck’s second goal and Holden’s first assist on the season.

The lead extended to 3-0 in the 64th minute when freshman defender Tori Phillips lobbed a free kick over the head of everyone on the field and into the back of the net. It was Phillips’ first career goal.

Pineda scored her second goal of the contest in the 68th minute to make it a 4-0 lead. It was also Pineda’s ninth goal of the season, which leads the team. The offensive onslaught came to an end after junior midfielder Jackie Moreau headed the ball in from a Pineda free kick in the 77th minute to make the score 5-0.

Charlotte (7-6-2, 4-3-1) had two strong opportunities to tie the game in the first half after McHenry was injured. In the 20th minute, midfielder Amanda Jones squandered an opportunity by placing an uncontested shot in the box wide right of the net, and midfielder Martha Thomas put an uncontested header right into the hands of Mean Green goalkeeper Jackie Kerestine in the 39th minute.

With that save, Kerestine moved into first place on the career saves list for North Texas. The shutout also put Kerestine in a tie for most shutouts in a season.

“It wasn’t the main record I wanted, but I’ll take anything that comes my way,” Kerestine said.

Despite the win, senior defender Leah Cox left the game in the 78th minute with an injured right leg. Cox could not put any weight on the leg and was helped off the field by the trainers. Kerestine said losing Cox is a blow for the mean Green.

“It’ll be huge because she’s always been a solid player, she’s a veteran on the team, she knows what’s expected” Kerestine said. “But we have other players on the team that are just as capable to come in and replace her.”

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