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Evans, Ga. - Georgia College scored two goals in the first eight minutes of the match and held on to upset the second-seeded Columbus State University women's soccer team 2-1 in the Peach Belt Conference Tournament semifinals Friday afternoon. The semifinals and championship matches are being held at Blanchard Woods Park in Evans, Ga.
With the victory, GC advances to the championship match of the PBC Tournament for the first time in school history. It was also the first time that the Bobcats defeated the Lady Cougars in 14 attempts.
It is the first time that the Lady Cougars will not play in the PBC Tournament finals since 2009 and just the second time since 2005. In its previous seven PBC Tournament semifinal matches, CSU was 7-0-0 and had outscored its opponents 17-0.
"Georgia College deserves all the credit in the world today," stated head coach Jay Entlich. "They took it to us in the first half and we didn't have an answer. We played better in the second half but it was too late."
GC (10-7-2) wasted no time taking command of the match as Ashley Veilleux took a pass from Liz Franco and sent a shot into the upper-right corner of the net in the seventh minute.
Just under two minutes later, Franco made it 2-0 with an arching shot from 15-yards out. The ball was just out of reach of Maylyn Parsons and went in for the goal.
Despite dominating much of the possession for the reminder of the half, the Lady Cougars failed to get a shot off.
Coming out of the break, Columbus State (14-6-0) picked up its intensity earning four corner kicks and its first shot all in the first 13 minutes of the second half.
The Lady Cougars finally broke through in the 59th minute as PBC Freshman of the Year Nicole Corcione put CSU on the board. GC goalkeeper Jessica Catapano punched the ball out of the box but Corcione corralled it and fired it into the net for her 10th goal of the season.
Looking for the equalizer, Shea Wilby had two shots denied by Catapano in the 65th minute while Shelby Rolling sent one wide in the 68th minute.
Things became interesting in the final 10 minutes of play as the Lady Cougars had a few good scoring opportunities. Catapano had to save back-to-back shot attempts by Taylor Marks and Kelsey Pelletier in the 81st minute to keep the score at 2-1.
In its first push, CSU was inches away from tying the match. On a one-versus-one with Catapano, Pelletier fired a shot in the box that the goalkeeper dove and saved to ice the victory for the Bobcats.
For the match, Catapano made five saves on the way to her ninth victory of the year. Parsons fell to 5-3-0 allowing two goals.
Columbus State will now wait to see if it earns an at-large selection into the program's eighth NCAA Tournament. The selection show will take place on Monday, November 11 at 7:30 p.m.