Two straight! Clayton State women blank Montevallo 2-0 in Peach Belt action

MONTEVALLO, Ala. – October 5, 2011 – Road victories have been few and far between in recent seasons for the Clayton State Laker women's soccer team. However, the Lakers picked up a key road victory on Wednesday with a thrilling 2-0 Peach Belt Conference triumph at Montevallo.

The victory is the second straight for Clayton State, which improves to 5-5 overall and 2-3 in the Peach Belt Conference. It's also the third shutout of the season for the Lakers. Montevallo, meanwhile, falls to 3-8 overall and 1-4 in the Peach Belt.

"The one thing missing for us the last few seasons has been road victories, especially in the conference," said Clayton State head coach Gareth O'Sullivan. "We played very well, and this was a big victory on the road tonight. We knew Montevallo would come at us hard, and they did in the second half, but the girls played very smart."

Clayton State took the early advantage with two first-half goals. The first was peculiar in that was an own-goal in the 23rd minute. The Lakers' Becky Brown served a high pass into the penalty box in which a Falcon defender tried to head it back to goalkeeper Kaitlin Thomas. However, the header was out of Thomas' reach and into the goal.

The Lakers scored their second goal in a more conventional manner four minutes later. Brown fed Natalia Valentine on a right cross, and Valentine punched it into the right post past a diving Thomas for her eighth goal of the season.

Clayton State goalkeeper Laoise O'Driscoll recorded six saves in earning her second straight shutout and running her scoreless minutes streak to 225 straight minutes. However, Montevallo out-shot the Lakers 17-7.

Clayton State travels on Saturday for a 3 p.m. non-conference encounter at Reinhardt.