Cook, Lopes cruise to home win

Sunday, September 16

Phoenix, Ariz.

1 p.m.

Grand Canyon

3-7

Cal State Fullerton

3-5-1

Cal State Fullerton

Grand Canyon

Photo by: David Kadlubowski

9/16/2018 3:16:00 PM | Women's Soccer

Box Score

Senior tallies 4 goals in 2 games

By: Sarah Woodward

Grand Canyon senior midfielder McKenzie Cook recorded her second two-goal game of the weekend, leading the GCU women's soccer team to its second straight victory with a 2-1 win against Cal State Fullerton on Sunday at GCU Stadium.

"It was an unbelievable showing from our girls," Lopes head coach Derek Leader said. "Fullerton is a very tough team and for us to come away with two wins this weekend after the adversity we've been through just shows a lot from our young ladies and helps us heading into our final nonconference trip.

"We're starting to find ourselves and it's really exciting to see the soccer that we're playing lately."

Following a two-goal game in GCU's 4-1 win against Portland State on Friday, Cook scored two more Sunday to help GCU (3-7) to its first sweep of a two-game home set.

The Titans (3-5-1) came to Phoenix with a fiery offense but had fallen to Arizona 2-1 on Friday. Fullerton fired 23 shots at Lopes senior goalkeeper Abby Burton, who tallied eight saves.

GCU opened the scoring in the 11th minute, as Cook battled for possession off a Fullerton goal kick. She beat a defender and slotted the ball behind the keeper for a 1-0 lead.

Cook struck again in the 20th minute. She dribbled past a defender to the far left corner of the 18-yard box, turned to put the ball on her shooting foot and fired a shot into the top-right corner of the net for a 2-0 advantage. Freshman forward Carlie Bateman earned the assist on the goal.

The Titans threatened with a header goal on a corner kick in the 83rd minute, but the GCU defense held form over the final seven minutes to secure the win.

Cook led the Lopes with four shots, three of which were on goal. Hannah Nichols, Sandra Hill, Perri Belzer and Remmi Deutsch each took one shot.

The Lopes close out nonconference play two matches in Hawaii this week. GCU faces North Dakota State at 10 p.m. (Arizona time) on Thursday to start the Rainbow Wahine Shootout and ends with a match against Hawaii at 8 p.m. on Sunday.