The cause was noble, maybe even great, as the Ashland women’s soccer team put on pink uniforms and sold t-shirts for breast cancer awareness this past weekend. The play on the field wasn’t bad either for the Eagles, who split the two games that were both played at Ferguson Field. Ashland scored twice on the weekend, giving up four goals in the process against Ohio Dominican and Urbana.

Ohio Dominican

Ashland kept the game scoreless for a half-hour against Ohio Dominican Friday, but the pink jerseys weren’t enough to deter the Panthers from finding the net after that on their way to a 3-0 victory.

Jennifer Holton had an outstanding game for ODU, scoring two goals in the winning effort. The goals were her fifth and sixth of the season, leading all Panthers in that category.

Holton broke the deadlock in the 31st minute, firing a laser on the ground from 15 yards out. The goal came on a cross from Sierra Patterson.

Anna Cameron scored the second goal of the game for the Panthers on another long-range effort. The unassisted goal came in the 48th minute, flying over the head of goalkeeper Rebecca Plescia from 24-yards out.

The final goal of the day came again from Holton in the form of a beautiful piece of skill. Marie Fudacz found Holton around the penalty spot, crossing the ball to her. From there, Holton took the ball from the air and put it off her right foot into the left side of Ashland’s net.

Despite the loss, Ashland showed promise in the second half of the game, creating more shots than the opposition (6-3). The Eagles fell to 2-8-2 in the GLIAC, which places them at fourth in the South Division.

Urbana

The pink jerseys were back on display Sunday afternoon and they only got brighter as Ashland took a 2-1 victory on a late winner. The first half of the game went on without much action, with neither team able to break through and gain an advantage.

In the 57th minute, Ashland’s Ashley Dragos found the breakthrough. A miscommunication in the midfield by the Blue Knights led to a turnover and the Eagles took advantage. Alicia VanZanten brought the ball up just outside the 18-yard box, where she tapped it to Dragos. From there, Dragos showed her skills with a clinical finish 1-on-1 against the goalkeeper.

Urbana found the equalizer twenty minutes later on a counterattack. Set up by Brooke Shultz and finished by Allison Agents, the goal evened the score at 1-1 with 12:48 left in regulation.

From there, Ashland was able to create two opportunities within the next five minutes. The first one, with 10:30 left on the clock, was missed but it showed that it was only going to take one moment to win the game.

Two minutes after the missed opportunity, in the ninth minute, Ashland found that moment. Tani Lopez scored the goal that put the Eagles up for good.

“The pass was from Alicia [VanZanten] and I was getting ready because I know coach always tells me to be by the goal, ready to get a simple goal,” Lopez said. “When she passed it, I just scored and I couldn’t have done it without her and the rest of the team. I really thought we could win this game.”

Coach Glenn Francis was happy with the way his team competed.

“We didn’t get rattled after [the goal],” he said. “I was upset at the way we gave the goal up, but we weren’t rattled, we were composed and we came back and got the go-ahead goal.”

“Great composure by freshman Tani Lopez and a good ball from captain Alicia. It was composure more than anything else.”