BEREA, Ky. - Alyssa Hetherington (8:46) and Ashley Royster (75:38) each tallied goals, while junior Rebeccah Rojas kept her sixth clean sheet of the season as the Brevard College women's soccer team (5-7-3, 4-3 USAS) racked up its third consecutive conference win by defeating the Berea College Mountaineers (3-14. 1-6 USAS) by a final of 2-0 on the road on Saturday afternoon.
Rojas, who has been named USA South Conference Women's Soccer Defensive Player of the Week two times this season, stopped five shots en route to the shutout by the goalkeeper from Murrieta, California and the BC defense.
Hetherington, who scored her first goal of 2019 in Brevard's last victory over Wesleyan, scored an unassisted goal in the ninth minute to go along with a goal in the 76th minute that she assisted on. Freshman forward Ashley Royster tallied her third goal of 2019 that gave the Tornados their 2-0 advantage.
Royster's two shots-on-goal led Brevard's attack, while Kyndall Cochran, Hetherington, Abbie Petrosky, and Aliyah Vaughan each tacked on one shot-on-goal.
In the match, shots were deadlocked as each team let 12 shots fly - with the Tornados holding a slim 6-5 advantage on shots-on-goal. Brevard controlled a total of four corner kicks compared to Berea's lone one.
Brevard threatened on the attack early, as a corner kick followed by back-to-back shot attempts in the first eight minutes applied pressure on Berea's defense before the Mountaineers conceded Hetherington's unassisted goal.
Berea applied its own pressure in response, firing three consecutive shots - two of which forced Rojas saves. However, Brevard's defense held strong as the Tornados took their 1-0 lead into the intermission.
Through the first 35 minutes of the second half, Berea searched for its equalizer, as the Mountaineers outshot the Tornados, 4-1. Brevard responded in the 74th minute as Royster broke Brevard's shooting drought. The freshman's shot was followed by two Brevard corner kicks in the 75th minute that helped set up Royster's 76h-minute goal that pushed the Tornados' lead to a controlling 2-0 margin.
Rojas and the defense held firm down the stretch to deal Brevard's third conference win, improving the Tornados' conference record to 4-3 on the season.
Brevard will close out its 2019 USA South slate when the Tornados play host to Maryville College on Tuesday, October 22 at 7 p.m. The match will be played as part of a doubleheader of soccer action at Ives-Lemel Family Field, with the men's team in action at 4 p.m. prior to the start of the women's match.
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