West Virginia, Auburn battle to 1-1 tie in family feud – WV MetroNews

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia struck first 6 minutes into the second half on Taylor White’s goal that broke a scoreless tie with Auburn on a rainy Thursday night at Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium.

The Tigers answered back 14 minutes later with an equalizer from Carly Thatcher on a play set up by senior midfielder Sammie Brown. Brown, a former standout and state champion at Morgantown High School, is the daughter of Nikki Izzo-Brown, the only head coach in WVU women’s soccer history.

That proved to be the final goal of a 1-1 match as the two teams battled to a draw for the second straight season.

“It was really special to be able to play on this field and play against WVU,” Sammie Brown said. “Growing up, it was my goal to play college soccer, so to finally get here was pretty surreal. It was definitely a little weird playing my mom’s team, but I just had to act like it was another game and try to get the result.”

With Auburn (4-1-2) trailing 1-0, Brown ignited her team’s attack and offered a pass to Sydney Richards, who got off a pair of quality scoring chances before Thatcher put home the rebound for her team’s lone goal.

“She’s like, ‘Did you see it? I got the assist.’ I’m like ‘well you know hunny, I’m proud of you.’ I think that was her ribbing on her mom moment,” Izzo-Brown said. “I couldn’t even say her name. I had to keep saying her number. But she caused us problems tonight. I was proud of her.”

After the teams battled to a scoreless tie through 45 minutes, heavy rain began to fall at halftime. Though it cleared up for stretches of the second half, both teams applied quality offensive pressure.

WVU (2-4-1) got its goal from Taylor White in the 51st minute after the sophomore forward followed up a scoring chance from Chloe Adler to get a shot past Auburn goalkeeper Maddie Prohaska.

“It’s maturity as a sophomore and the composure in front of the net to finish that one and maybe to get that other one in the back of the net,” Izzo-Brown said. “Taylor’s been fabulous for us and we’re really proud of what she’s been able to do — not only how she can score goals for us, but how she can generate the attack.”

White hit the crossbar 5 minutes after giving the Mountaineers the lead, and not long after, the Tigers picked up their pace offensively before pulling even.

“Both teams battled,” Izzo-Brown said. “I thought we had the better of the chances. I’m not going to lie. We need to put that other one that hit the post in the back of the net.”

Mountaineer keeper Kayza Massey stopped four shots, as did Prohaska.

Brown logged 84 minutes for the Tigers.

West Virginia returns to action Sunday when it welcomes Villanova for its final match before the start of Big 12 play.

“It’s huge. It’s the biggest match. I talked to the girls. They’re disappointed,” Izzo-Brown said. ”Now we have to do everything we can to beat Villanova.”