UCA women beats West Georgia 3-1 behind Billings’ two goals

Caroline Billings spent the first half setting up a teammate. After the break, she decided to handle the scoring herself.

The forward found the net twice in the second half Sunday as Central Arkansas beat West Georgia 3-1 in Carrollton, Georgia.

The road win bumps UCA women’s soccer to 5-6-3 overall and 2-2-1 in UAC matches.

West Georgia dropped to 0-10-2 and 0-5-0 in league play. The Wolves are still waiting on their first win, and this one won’t help the mood around Carrollton.

Billings had her fingerprints on every goal the Bears scored. She finished with two goals and an assist.

Her second goal came with a little more than four minutes left. Jama Akpanudo slipped her the ball and Billings put it away at 85:57.

That’s seven goals on the year for Billings, which is tops on the UCA roster.

Go-ahead goal came early in second half

Things were even at 1-1 coming out of halftime.

Billings changed that about eight minutes in. Sakiko Manabe sent a nice pass her way and Billings knocked it in at 52:58.

The Bears wouldn’t trail or even sit tied again the rest of the day.

West Georgia had a corner kick a few minutes later, but UCA turned it away.

Makenna Adam came close to adding another one about halfway through the half. Her shot hit the frame and stayed out.

Neither team got many clean looks after that. It was a lot of back-and-forth without much to show for it until the Bears got their late insurance goal.

Akpanudo’s speed opened scoring

The first goal of the afternoon belonged to Akpanudo at 25:37.

Billings got her the ball and Akpanudo beat the West Georgia keeper to the spot. After that, all she had left to do was roll it into an empty net.

It was her fourth goal this season.

Both teams had gotten shots off in the first 20 minutes. Nobody had a real edge before that goal went in, and it looked like it might be one of those grind-it-out afternoons.

UCA kept coming after it went up 1-0 but couldn’t add a second.

Then West Georgia pushed forward late in the half and drew a penalty kick. Noemi Casique made it at 40:21 to even things up.

Shot chart wasn’t close

The Bears outshot West Georgia 20-6.

Shots on goal went 7-4 in their favor.

UCA was about as balanced as it gets with 10 shots in each half. The Wolves got three in each.

Corners were 6-1 and fouls were nearly even at 10-9. West Georgia’s keeper made four saves.

Anna Kathryn Harrell went the full 90 minutes in net for the Bears and stopped three shots.

Billings put four of her five shots on target. Akpanudo took four shots and Manabe had three.

Three straight at home

UCA gets to stay put for a while now, with its next three matches at home.

Austin Peay is first up Thursday, Oct. 15. Kickoff is at 7 p.m. at the Bill Stephens Track and Soccer Complex.

The Bears had three different players pick up an assist Sunday. That’s not a bad habit to carry back home.