Women's soccer team tops No. 9 Iowa Western on the road

The Eastern Florida State College women's soccer team scored four times in the second half to defeat No. 9 Iowa Western Saturday at Laramie County Community College in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

The Titans, who are ranked No. 1 and are the defending national champions, found themselves trailing 1-0 at halftime as Iowa Western found the back of the net with three minutes, 58 seconds left in the first half.

But the Titans came out of the break on a mission and less than two minutes into the second half they would tie the game.

Lena Stevens hit a nice corner kick to the middle of the field where Kailey Dunne headed it into the top of the net.

Five minutes later the Titans had the lead as Morgan Gamin crossed a ball as Laura Cetina broke into the box and the reigning United Soccer Player of the Year headed it into the back of the net.

Up 2-1, the Titans continued to put pressure on the Iowa Western defense and with 20:25 left in the game Putri Sazali hit a nice corner that Cetina finished to make it 3-1.

Less than a minute later it looked like Cetina may get the hat trick but the shot bounced off the top of the goal post.

Three minutes later the Titans would make it 4-1 as Ana Alvarez hit a shot from outside the box, scoring her first goal as a Titan.

"The response to the goal was fantastic, we felt like we dominated the first half, but they had some good opportunities and went up 1-0 late in the first," Eastern Florida State College women's soccer coach Scott Carswell said. "I think we got a little complacent up 4-1 and Iowa Western is a good team, came to compete and wanted to knock off the No. 1 team in the country."

With 11:16 remaining, goalkeeper Chloe Adams thought she made a save but the ref said it went over the line and called it a goal to make it 4-2.

Adams kept it 4-2 with a kick save with 3:54 remaining but with 3:04 Iowa Western did get the goal to cut the lead to 4-3.

The Titans defense held them in check for the final two minutes to secure the victory.

"Ana, Kailey and Laura were fantastic in the midfield today, Isla (Brown) came in and did fantastic as well, midfield was excellent," Carswell said. "Andrea Fuentes was excellent in the back as was Kat (Akatarinha Papagiorgio). A lot of good, gutsy efforts. It isn't easy to play in the altitude, we were gasping for air at times, but it took a lot of guts for them to pull this out."

Eastern Florida State College, who is 2-0 with both wins coming against top 10 teams in the country, will play No. 16 Laramie County Community College Monday at 1 p.m. eastern time.