Pirro, Gourley lead GCU past New Mexico

Sunday, September 4

Albuquerque, N.M.

12 p.m.

Grand Canyon

4-1-1, 0-0-0

New Mexico

1-2-2, 0-0-0

Grand Canyon

New Mexico

9/4/2022 2:44:00 PM | Women's Soccer

Box Score

Reigning WAC champs take down Mountain West champs on road

By: Jerob Moon

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The Grand Canyon women's soccer team remained unbeaten on the road with a 2-1 win at New Mexico on Sunday afternoon in a battle of reigning conference champions.

Junior forward Gianna Gourley gave the Lopes (4-1-1) an early lead, and after an equalizer from New Mexico (1-2-2) redshirt freshman midfielder Leah Pirro scored the game winner in the 65th minute.

"I'm super proud of our team today, that was an unbelievable performance from our soccer family," GCU head coach Chris Cissell said. "New Mexico is really good and a team we have a lot of respect for. It's exciting for us to be able to back up our win against Arizona at home on Thursday with a road win against such a great team."

The Lopes picked up right where they left off after the 1-0 win over the Wildcats at GCU Stadium on Thursday with an early goal by Gourley in the 14th minute. The reigning WAC Offensive Player of the Week scored her sixth goal of the season after forward Lindsey Prokop found Gourley at the back post with a right-footed cross.

The Las Vegas native now leads the WAC with 13 points and is tied for the conference lead with six goals. She has scored a point in five of the six games this season.

The early goal was just the start of a strong offensive first half for GCU as the team recorded eight shots and collected five of the season-high nine corners.

In the second half the Lobos came out strong on offense and tied up the match off a free kick from Jadyn Edwards in the 60th minute. That shot was one of three New Mexico had all match.

After the New Mexico equalizer, GCU stayed aggressive on offense and had three shots saved by the Lobo goalkeeper in a span on 10 minutes.

The Lopes were able to finally break through with the goal by Pirro in the 65th minute. The transfer from San Diego — who joined the team last season but had to sit out all of 2021 — took a long pass from GCU defender Aleisha Ganief and finished the one-on-one opportunity against the keeper with a right-footed shot.

Pirro finished with a match-high five shots with four on goal against the defending Mountain West champions.

The GCU defense did its job the rest of the match withstanding three New Mexico scoring chances but all going out for a goal kick by sophomore keeper Jordan Ferguson, who finished with two saves.

After passing the first two tests of a challenging September schedule, the Lopes will return home on Sunday for the final nonconference match against Arkansas. GCU will face off against the reigning SEC champions at 7 p.m. in GCU Stadium.