Colleges: Bulls can't hold lead against LSU

For the second straight weekend, South Florida’s women held a lead against an SEC opponent, but couldn’t hold it.

The Bulls fell 2-1 to LSU in the Dafeldecker Classic at the USF Soccer Stadium on Sunday afternoon as Melissa Clarke scored twice for the Tigers, the second coming in the 87th minute, after Noelle Pineiro had notched her third goal of the season from the penalty spot to give the Bulls the lead.

“I thought the girls fought really well,” Bulls coach Denise Schilte-Brown said. “I think we played much better than we did on Friday night. It’s good to see that the team was able to recover from a not too good performance and turn something into a good performance.”

After a scoreless first half, Bulls midfielder Gina Pacheco wove between two LSU defenders into the penalty area, and was brought down. That gave Pineiro the chance to give USF (1-2-1) the lead, and she did, firing her shot low into the left corner of the net in the 65th minute.

LSU (2-1-1) tied the game eight minutes later as Clarke latched onto a pass by Taryne Boudreau and drove a shot home. Clarke then snatched victory for the Tigers as she scored on the rebound after Bulls goalkeeper Mallori Lofton-Malachi had saved her initial shot.

“I thought we deserved to win the game and we showed a lot of offensive creativity and a lot of confidence on the ball,” Schilte-Brown said. “We had good contribution today from the majority of the team and unfortunately we didn't get the result.”