Charlotte women advance to A-10 final

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The Charlotte 49ers women’s soccer team advanced to their third consecutive Atlantic 10 Championship Final by defeating the Fordham Rams, 2-1, in a thrilling game at Transamerica Field with freshman India Winford registering the game-winning goal in the 89th minute. Charlotte rallied from a 1-0 deficit with the Rams scoring in the opening minute of the game to secure their fourth A-10 Championship game in five years.

The game was extremely exciting for the fans in attendance as both squads had several goal-scoring opportunities including a late chance in which Charlotte’s Whitney Weinraub scored a goal, however it was rebuked by an offside call by the assistant referee. In the first half, Fordham nearly took a 2-0 lead after a Rams shot careened off the crossbar and over the goal.

"It was disappointing that they called offside which took away the goal that I scored in the closing minutes,” said Weinraub of her assumed game-winner. “But we didn’t drop our heads after that and we had a lot of momentum to get the final goal."

Annie Worden scored the opening goal of the game for the Rams 45-seconds into the match after the Charlotte defense failed to clear the ball. Worden took control of the ball and shot towards the left corner to give Fordham the lead over the Niners.

Charlotte awakened from its early-game slumber and answered in the 28th minute from a Sam Huecker shot into the left corner. Huecker charged onto an un-cleared bouncing ball in Fordham’s defensive area and ripped it past Fordham’s goalkeeper Rachel Suther. The goal was Huecker’s second of the season and 14th of her career.

The game remained tied going into halftime with Charlotte holding the slim shot advantage, 6-4.

The second stanza remained scoreless for the majority of the before Winford tallied the game-winner. A long ball on the near touchline from Megan Minnix was bobbled by Fordham goalkeeper Sarah Zieman and the freshman from Winston-Salem, N.C.

Winford’s goal was the second of her career and first game-winning of the season.

"It was a perfect cross by Megan (Minnix),” Winford added off the assist. “I was going to head the ball but then it ended up at my feet so I just focused on putting the ball into the goal."

Charlotte defeated Fordham 4-0 early in the season, but on a cold frigid night in Charlotte the game was drastically different with so much at stake for both teams.

“There is no such thing as an easy game when you get to this point of a conference tournament,” stated head coach John Cullen of the close game. “We got off to such a bad start but we turned it around to win the game and advance.”

Charlotte, the two seed in the tournament, will face top-seeded and regular season A-10 champions, Dayton, in the championship final on Sunday at 1 p.m. The two teams met earlier in the season at Dayton and battled to a 0-0 double overtime time. Charlotte owns the all-time series advantage over the Flyers, 5-0-1.

“We did not play our best today but we are happy to advance,” stated head coach John Cullen. “We will have to bring our A game on Sunday against Dayton.”