The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
Houston
Blazers Blank League-Leading Houston, 2-0
10/22/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Oct. 22, 2010
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- UAB freshman forward Sam Bradford tallied a goal in the 10th minute and the Blazers never looked back, knocking off Conference USA-leading Houston, 2-0, on Friday night at West Campus Field. Junior forward Carolyn Polcari notched her seventh goal of the season in the second half as UAB improves to 7-8-2 overall and 3-4-2 in C-USA.
"We changed our system and those changes clearly suited our personnel extremely well," head coach Paul Harbin said. "We executed well against a very good Houston team. I was very proud of our team."
UAB senior goalkeeper Kate Blankenship delivered a solid performance on Senior Night, earning her 19th career shutout while making five saves. It marked the fourth shutout of the season for the Blazers.
"It was very important to get the shutout," Harbin said. "We know we're capable of scoring goals but somehow teams we've played had capitalized on our mistakes in previous games. We just needed to simplify things."
Bradford gave the Blazers the early lead, tallying her third goal of the season at the 9:11 mark. Junior forward Tiffini Turpin drew a pair of defenders inside the box before crossing to Bradford, who hammered a shot straight into the net from 12 yards out.
Houston (11-4-2, 6-2-1 C-USA) nearly notched the equalizer on a corner kick two minutes before halftime, but UAB goalkeeper Kate Blankenship stuck her hand out and batted the ball away to preserve the Blazers' 1-0 lead at the break.
The Blazers added their second goal of the game when Polcari intercepted a pass in the midfield and fired a long-range shot. The ball snuck just inside the near post and past the outstretched hand of Houston keeper Camille Koski to give UAB a 2-0 lead.
Houston finished with an 11-8 shot advantage, while the Blazers owned a 6-5 corner advantage.
UAB returns to the pitch Sunday for its final home game of the 2010 season. The Blazers host Rice at 1 p.m. at West Campus Field.
