UNC women’s soccer defeats Houston Cougars in 6-1 rout

The North Carolina women’s soccer team used domination in the midfield to outshoot Houston 33-7 on its way to a 6-1 rout on Sunday.

The Tar Heel midfield controlled the game, limiting Houston’s opportunities and feeding UNC’s dangerous forwards.

“Our midfield is scrappy,” coach Anson Dorrance said. “When you have some of the personalities we have in there like Amber Brooks, who is one of the elite defensive midfielders in the game … that helps us control midfield.”

The midfield duo of Brooks and Kelly McFarlane helped spur UNC’s offensive clinic.

The two combined for three assists and a goal, while other starting midfielders Crystal Dunn and Ranee Premji added pace and structure for the whole team.

“Our job is to get our forwards the ball and allow them to get their shots off,” Brooks said. “Compared to Friday, we did a much better job of that, especially in the goal differential.”

The Tar Heels got on the board first when McFarlane finished off a corner kick that was sent in from Courtney Jones. The ball was tapped around and Megan Brigman deflected it to the feet of McFarlane, where she was able to finish easily.

Twice more UNC scored on set pieces. Six-foot defender Rachel Wood dashed beyond the Houston defense and drilled in a header on a free kick from Brooks to give the Tar Heels their third goal of the game.

Less than three minutes into the second half, another Jones corner kick bounced around the box until Brigman finally put the ball in the back of the net.

“We’re a tall and aggressive team,” Brooks said. “We’re good in the air. We’ve really been focusing on our free kicks and our corner kicks, and it was great that we were able to capitalize on those.”

UNC found offensive success off the dribble, too.

Kealia Ohai netted the Tar Heels’ second tally of the game when she received the ball 30 yards away from goal. She used fancy footwork to beat her defender into the box, where she floated a shot over the goalkeeper’s head and into the upper right corner of the net.

Forward Emmalie Pfankuch turned the game into a rout when she took a pass from Meg Morris and slid through the defense to finish.

Brooke Elby scored the final goal of the game with just more than 15 minutes remaining.

“The first half, it wasn’t really settled,” Dorrance said. “We had to win the game in the second half. I felt obviously their fatigue and some of our goals put us in a great position to finish the game.”

Six Tar Heels scored their first goal of the season against Houston, but it wasn’t just offense that contributed to the dominating result. The strong Tar Heel defense held a potentially explosive Houston offense to just one goal.

Houston’s lone goal was on a play where defender Morris took a chance on a ball but misplayed it, allowing an easy scoring opportunity for the Cougars.

But for the most part, UNC held a tough backline. A strong offside trap and control of possession in the midfield severely limited Houston all game long.

“When our midfield steps up and dominates, then we don’t have to do that much work,” Wood said. “As long as we can step up and compact the game for them, then they don’t have to do as much running and they can focus on ball hunting.”

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