Erica Roberts Golden Goal Sends Pirates Past Charlotte, 1-0

Monday, November 4

Lakewood Ranch, Fla.

11:00 a.m.

East Carolina University

9-3-6, 5-2-3

Charlotte

4-8-7, 3-2-5

Charlotte

East Carolina

Photo by: American Athletic Conference

Erica Roberts Golden Goal Sends Pirates Past Charlotte, 1-0

November 04, 2024 | Soccer

Box Score

Pirates Advance to American Athletic Conference Semifinal

LAKEWOOD RANCH, Fla. - Erica Roberts had never scored a collegiate goal before her 101st minute strike sent the East Carolina soccer team past Charlotte in the American Athletic Conference Tournament, 1-0, on Monday afternoon at the Premier Sports Campus. The double-overtime victory sends the Pirates to the Semifinal Round where they will face the winner of Monday afternoon's contest between two-seeded South Florida and seven-seeded North Texas.

The game started out as so many tournament affairs do: defensive and tactical with neither team wanting to make the fatal mistake and see their season end. That's not to say that there weren't chances, there were plenty, particularly in the second half of the game.

Charlotte (4-8-7, 3-2-5 AAC) had one of those changes in the 63rd minute when the ball went off of an ECU (9-3-6, 5-2-3 AAC) defender and off of the post before Annabelle Walker saw her shot sail off target on the rapid-fire rebounding chance.

The Niners got another juicy chance near the end of regulation in the 87th minute when Maeve English made what may have been the save of her career to stop an Amelia Brown shot in the center of the goal before Evie Craven's first-timer went awry on the second chance.

That's not to say that Charlotte had all of the tantalizing regulation chances. The Pirates forced six saves on the game and made a few of them harder than the Niners might have hoped, Emma Sheehan made sure of that with her 81st minute strike. Coming from the left side of the pitch the attempt with struck with impressive power to the upper portion of the goal looking for the near post but keeper Emma Wakeman was able to get a punch to it to keep things level.

Sydney Schnell also had several good chances with her three shots on goal as the Pirates' leading goal scorer proved much for Charlotte to handle all game.

Otherwise, it was a slugfest, but a defensive, tactical one. That included in the first overtime where, despite a bit of a chance in the waning seconds which English collected, neither team extended themselves too far or took too many risks. English, for her part, tallied her 29th career clean sheet on Monday, one away from Amber Campbell's program record.

The second overtime was nothing of that sort as junior Erica Roberts entered the lineup for the Pirates. The Florida native, playing just down the road from her hometown of St. Petersburg, made one run into the box in the first 30 seconds which Charlotte cleared away before, on a giveaway, Roberts collected the ball and drove confidently down the center left of the pitch before letting it rip from distance and painting the back of the net with her left foot for the Golden Goal.

Roberts entered the game with 24 career shots, just four on goal, and not a point to her name. Now, she becomes the woman who propelled the Pirates to their first conference tournament win since a victory over SMU, 5-3 on PKs, back in 2018 in Tampa, Fla., and into the AAC Semifinal Round.

Notables

The Pirates won the battle of shots on goal 7-2 with Maeve English making two huge stops.
The Golden Goal by Roberts was ECU's first in postseason play since a 2-1 win over Memphis on Nov. 2, 2014.
Annabelle Abbott and Maeve English have now appeared in 85 games in Purple and Gold, breaking Kim Sanford's previous program record.
English has now played just over 7,779 minutes in her ECU career, besting Amber Campbell's previous program career record for goalkeeper minutes (7,690 from 2005-08).

Up Next
The Pirates will face the winner of South Florida vs. North Texas in the Semifinal Round on Thursday at 4 p.m. The game will be available for streaming once again on ESPN+.